Artist Grant Applications: Further Information
The Living Artists Grants are no longer accepting applications. The 3 awardees will be announced on February 2nd.
Three low-income emerging visual artists who apply and are chosen by our selection committee will receive a financial grant of $1,000 each. In addition, awardees will be promoted on LAC platforms as well as included in LAC’s artist directory and 2024 gallery shows.
Upon reviewing the first batch of applications, the grant committee made some observations and decided to relay this follow-up information to artists who have already applied and those who are thinking of applying…
Follow-Up Information
Whether you have already applied or are considering applying, the grant committee wanted to address some issues seen in already-submitted applications, as well as provide the recently-confirmed decision criteria that will be used in scoring applications.
Edit Your Response
In order to accommodate those who have already submitted, prior applicants may edit their responses as needed. To do so, access the Google application form and be sure the email you used to submit is selected. The form should tell you you’ve already submitted and provide a link to edit your response. If you have any issues, please reach out via email: info@livingartistscollective.org.
Mistakes So Far
A few people left their name out of the first question (it asks for both name and pronouns). We need your name, but you may leave off pronouns if you wish.
The artist bio/statement is asking for information about you and your artwork, not how you would spend the granted money. See the LAC artist directory for some artist bio and statement examples.
File guidelines for submitting documentation ask you to rename the file with the following information: "last-name_piece-title_year-completed.jpg". However, if you already submitted and did not rename properly, you won’t be able to delete and re-submit image files. Do not duplicate by submitting the same files renamed. (You won’t be marked down if you didn’t name your files correctly).
In the question asking about sources of income, we’d like to know all your income sources, not just what you made from art. If you received money from freelance jobs, family support, unemployment checks (in your name), etc. this is the place to list it. You do not need to quantify support that is not financial in nature (like free housing or coaching, art trades, etc.) or that is in someone else’s name. You are welcome to share if it provides context for your financial situation.
Decision Criteria
In further effort to provide transparency, we have shared our finalized decision criteria below. In commitment to making decisions fairly and equitably, we promise that we will not mark submissions down based on poor grammar, misspellings, or any lack of adherence to art world conventions, i.e. having the perfect artist statement, having shown in popular galleries, etc.
On a scale of 1 to 5:
Artistic practice:
Artist clearly explains what their work/art practice is about.
Has some form of artist statement that matches what they say their work is about (submitted on the form or on their website/portfolio).
Has a digital portfolio that is easy to navigate and accurately represents their work (can be an Instagram account).
You could identify themes in their art practice by looking at their portfolio.
Their work samples show artistic skill.
Training, experience, commitment:
Has a CV/bio/resume (doesn’t have to be all 3, can be submitted or somewhere on their portfolio) that clearly states their artistic background and provides context on their artistic career and broader life.
Their skill level seems consistent with the amount of training they’ve received.
They show commitment to growth and devoting time to their practice.
All submissions will be scored, and answers to the demographics questions will be considered in deciding on finalists. The committee will choose as many finalists to interview as they wish before selecting the 3 awardees. Committee members will score all applicants, but will refrain from conducting finalist interviews of artists who they are personally acquainted with (another committee member will handle it).
The Grant Committee
Annah Kim Nelson-Feeney is Living Artists Collective’s current Board of Directors President. Annah works as a business strategy consultant for Salesforce, runs AKNF Art & Photography, and participates actively in the Seattle art community as an artist and arts supporter.
Geri Silver joined the Board of Directors for the Living Artists Collective in 2023. Geri is an avid supporter of the visual and performing arts and spent years producing, marketing, and ticketing for a variety of arts organizations, including the TodayTix app and The Paley Center for Media. She now supports strategic growth for LinkedIn’s Editorial content and is a recent Seattle transplant. Geri is committed to championing local arts in all forms and seeing artists empowered and recognized for their contributions to our communities.
Judy Lee is a Portrait Artist who focuses on social justice based community-centered projects. She is interested in exploring how people who are marginalized move through the world using the mediums of photography, written narrative, videography, and more. She is currently undertaking two projects: My Name Story, partially supported by 4Culture, and Home in My Body, funded by the NWFF Collective Power Fund. She is committed to community care and advocating for more accessibility and inclusion in artist spaces and beyond.
Ren Riley is a visual artist and a writer for Beautiful Bizarre Magazine. In her artistic practice, she focuses on textiles with particular interests in wearable art, embroidery, and hand-stamped fabrics. In her career, she works as a marketing director for a nonprofit organization. With her spare time, she utilizes her skills in marketing and knowledge of the nonprofit sector to aid local Puget Sound organizations supporting low-income artists and community building efforts within the arts.
Alison Shlom is a writer, artist (by the moniker “Meuffy”), feminist, and lawyer, based in Seattle, WA. She was the founding President of LAC’s Board of Directors and continues to enjoy participating as a volunteer.
Alaina Stocker is the Executive Director and founder of Living Artists Collective. She helped develop all the decision criteria, put together the materials and systems, is communicating with artists who have questions, and will be present for the committee meetings to take notes and project manage. She will not, however, be scoring applications, conducting interviews, or providing input on who should receive awards.
With these Living Artists Grants we have tried our hardest to develop an equitable process that requests enough information to make decisions, but does not waste artists’ valuable time or rely too heavily on art world conventions. This is our first time providing these grants, and we highly value your opinion on the process. We will send out a survey after awardees have been announced, but prior to that please reach out with any questions or feedback on anything about the granting process.
Good luck to all artist applicants!
Putting sorely-needed money in the hands of artists making a lower income has been Living Artists Collective’s goal since the start, and we are so excited to be building the grant program so it best serves the Seattle area’s artist community, hopefully for many years to come.
We have reset the donation form, so now you can donate to the next round of three $1,000 grants.
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