Visual Artist and Craft Maker Awards:Fife

In partnership with Creative Scotland

GUIDELINES2016-17

1 NATIONAL BACKGROUND

Creative Scotland has established small grants schemes with a range of local authorities across Scotland to support visual artists and craft practitioners in their creative and professional development. The award schemes are intended to support practitioners who have demonstrated a commitment to their work and in developing their practice.

These guidelines are based on Creative Scotland’s national guidance document which can be accessed at .

PURPOSE OF AWARDS:

These awards aim to support the ambition and creative development of individual craft/visual artists based in Fife. They include Project Grants, a Development Programme, and Mentoring.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR IN YOUR APPLICATION:

We want to hear about your work, your ideas, and your track record. When we make decisions we give priority to those that clearly demonstrate the quality of work and an on-goingcommitment to developing a visual arts’

or crafts’ practice.

Funding is provided to enable artists to develop a long term commitment to their practice and to produce a body of work over time. However the panel will be looking for development in the work so a proposal that does not show a developmentis unlikely to be successful.Many schemes are looking for how a specific project can support this progression.

We will give priority to applicants who can best demonstratethe following:

  • Quality of work in relation to contemporary practice

Quality of work is extremely important and we will assess this from your written application and CV as well as the supporting visual material. Providing clearly writtentext which is explanatory but also concise will help us to understand your work to date and what you are applying to do.Think about how your work relates to current, recent and historical practice as this will help us to assess your work

within a wider context.

Your CV helps to show your trackrecord as an artist or maker. In your CV put newest things first and take out any non-art related activities.

Your supporting material should be of a good quality and carefully selected to show your current work

and back up your application. Ensure it isclearly labelled and remember to also include an image list with titles, dates, materials, dimensions and, where appropriate, the venue the work is shown in.

Make sure that your visual material is well photographed and that the standard of image is

high. The panel want to see your work clearly so do avoid images that do not give a strong sense of the work.Good images show that you value your work and have a level of professionalism.

If you are proposing to develop work in another medium –how does your choice of images support that move?

  • Commitment to the development of practice both conceptually and technically

We are interested in your ideas and the methods you use to make work. Explaining your ideas in a straightforward way will help us to understand your application better. Consider how your proposal will help you to develop your work both practically and in relation to your ideas. The stage within your career or timing of proposal is also useful to think about

  • That funding would have a positive impact on the long term development of practice which would be

difficult to achieve without such support

Please give a clear outline as to how funding at this point will impact on your on-going practice and our wider professional development as an artist. This may also relate to other relevant projects or opportunities and how you best develop these. This is not a breakdown of your financial situation, personal circumstances or previous funding bids but rather how your project (or plan) may help your long term creative and professional development. Have a real reason for applying –don’t just cobble together an application for the money as a panel can see through this.

  • A clear plan of proposed activity that shows how funds might be used

Please give a clear budget that has a clear plan of how the funds may be used to support the development of your practice. Make sure the costs of the project are accurate and realistic. Some otherwise strong applications fall down on the budget being poorly thought through.If you need more assistance with pulling together a budget, the Cultural Enterprise Office have produced a very useful guide here.

For artists applying to develop work specifically for an exhibition, it helps the panel to see the contribution from the gallery/ organising venue involved. Please include this information particularly if this is a publicly funded gallery. Additionally, please note that hiring galleries to show your work is not a priority for these

funds.

THE APPLICATION PROCESS EXPLAINED

All applications to the funds will go to a panel meeting, which will help make decisions on who is supported.

The panel is usually made up of around 5 arts professionals, and this willinclude at least one artist and one maker. We use advisors to help us achieve a broader perspective on current practice and they may be a mix of artists, makers, curators, tutors or other arts professionals. Creative Scotland officers may also be involved in the panel.

In advance of the panel meeting,the panel will have read and considered the written applications and will normally have had access to the visual material. It is important that your written application and visual material

support one another and the relationship between them is clear. An image list should be enclosed with your

application in order to give the panel all the information they need. Remember the panel members may not be familiar with your work or the ideas or methods you are using.

During the meeting the visual and written material is reviewed and assessed against the stated criteria for the funds. The recommendations for awards are based on these discussions.

WHAT HAPPENS IF I’M UNSUCCESSFUL IN MY APPLICATION?

Please remember that these funds are competitive which means that not all applications that meet the criteria will be funded. If you are unsuccessful you may be successful in another round so please do not be deterred from applying for the next suitable opportunity.

However, if you are not successful in your application please take time to reflect on the feedback given or ask for feedback if available. If you do not understand the feedback you have been given or need more clarity you can call or email the person whose contact details will be on your letter. You may have just missed out on

receiving funding due to poor images or lack of clarity for example. Being turned down is not necessarily a comment on the quality of your work, but rather the strength of your proposal.If you are serious about developing your professional practice, it is important to ask for feedback and take it on board, whether you

intend to re-apply to this scheme, or are planning to apply for any other funding scheme. If you are re-applying, we would expect you to have noted the feedback and addressed any issues raised. We have had experience of a good number of people being turned down in one round, and then successfully re-applying with a stronger and more focussed application due to taking on board the feedback from the panel.

Try to be as clear as possible in your answers. As a guideline questions should be answered in no more than 500 words.

It may help to ask a friend who doesn’t know the details of your application to read it and give you feedback before you hand it in.

You may also find this Cultural Enterprise Office publication useful and also advice and support at Artquest.

2 FIFEAWARDS’ SCHEME DETAILS

Please make sure that you use the relevant application form for the type of award you’re applying for.

PROJECT GRANT

It provides grants to support specific projects which provide an individual artist the opportunity to develop their practice.

The fund can support specific activities including:

  • research (eg travel and accommodation; exploring collaboration with other visual/craft artists)
  • developing skills (eg costs of attending training courses or a conference)
  • creating new work (could include materials or small pieces of equipment) for a specific exhibition/project
  • presenting and marketing work (eg towards exhibition costs – display equipment, interpretation, transport; attending a trade fair which the applicant has not attended before; exhibition costs; marketing to develop new markets; NOTE framing costs for existing work are not a high priority)

Funds available:

  • Grants are normally available for up to £750. Artists are encouraged to request a sum appropriate to their project rather than automatically apply for the maximum.
  • 100% of costs can be covered although a contribution towards the costs is preferred.
  • The grants’ panel reserves the right to offer a different amount to that requested.

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

It supports artists who are at a stage in their career where they have identified the opportunity for significant development of their artistic practice to take it to a different level.

A bursary of £1,500 plus an allowance of up to a further £1,500 is provided for an artist to follow a tailored and agreed 12 month programme of professional development.

Two places are available on the 2016-17programme.

The bursary can be spent at the artist’s discretion (with exclusions listed below). An account of expenditure to be provided at the end as part of the artist’s programme report.

Costs covered by the allowance are to be agreed in advance.

All artists on the programme will receive 1-1 mentoring.

Depending on the artist’s requirements the bursary may cover:

  • Research/travel
  • Creation of new work
  • Presenting and marketing work

The allowance can go towards:

  • Development of skills/training
  • Replacement/upgrading costs of equipment will be considered

MENTORING

It provides a one-off mentoring session to help an artist to reflect on and clarify the way forward concerning a particular aspect of their practice or how to develop a particular project.

The financial support goes to the appointed mentor, not the artist receiving the mentoring. If the successful applicant has to travel to meet the mentor travel expenses however will be considered.

Fife has a bank of Artist Mentors who have received training. Successful applicants to the scheme will preferably be matched to an appropriate mentor from the scheme. Consideration will be given however to appointing someone outwith the Fife bank if the applicant has a strong case for working with someone who has particular skills or knowledge.

Artists who have had a mentoring session are eligible to apply within the same year for a project grant to support a project which has been developed through mentoring.

3 NITTY GRITTY RULES!

WHO CAN APPLY:

  • The scheme is open to craft/visual artists based in Fife.
  • Applicants may be of any age and at any stage of their career, but must be out of formal education.
  • Applicants will have demonstrated a level of commitment to their practice and have achieved a body of work out with formal education.

EXCLUSIONS:

  • Funding will not be awarded retrospectively
  • Funding will not be awarded to students in formal education
  • Funding cannot be awarded for business start-up costs
  • Fund will not cover replacement/upgrading costs of equipment
  • Fund will not cover web development costs
  • Fund will not cover time or childcare costs
  • Funding will not cover venue hire or studio costs
  • Artists cannot apply to THIS grant scheme and Creative Scotland for support for the same project.
  • Artists cannot apply to the THIS grant scheme and the Dundee Visual/Craft Artists Award Scheme (for which some Fife based artists may be eligible) for the same project
  • Artists may not apply to THIS award scheme in the same financial year as receiving an award from the Dundee VAA Scheme

NUMBER OF GRANTS PER YEAR:

Only one grant per financial year can be awarded to an individual (1 April-31 March).

After an applicant has had a successful grant application, an application in a following year must demonstrate that it is for activity which shows development in the artist’s practice from when they received their previous grant.

After an applicant has had 2 successful grant applications, they must leave a gap of 2 years before applying for a 3rd grant.

DEADLINE:

The deadline for applications isWednesday 4 October 2017 at 5pm.

4 HOW TO APPLY:

Please read the above guidelines carefully and contact FCA&C for an initial discussion before applying - 01334 474610 / /

Please complete the application form downloadable from the page.

  • Return the completed form by the deadline stated above. Applications that arrive after the deadline date will not be considered.
  • The form must be typed and submitted electronically, either by emailing to or uploading to Dropbox or WeTransfer and sending to .
  • Please ensure that you check the box stating that all the information within the application is true and correct.
  • If completing the form on your own word processing system, please ensure that the format remains the same.
  • Please include supporting material:

– 6 good quality digital images of work made in the last 18 months (JPEG or PDF). Please

email/upload with your application. Images should be up to 300dpi, no more than 1MB each in

size, and suitable to read on a pc (ie if you use a Mac, remember the .jpg/.pdf extension after the

image title);

– and/or up to 2 minute film clip on DVD(WMV, MPEG4 or MOV preferred) – a weblink is also acceptable

– CV

- List of images

  • Original artwork will not be accepted as support to any application.

Please email/upload the completed application & associated material to:

Susan Davis, , FCA&C (The Town Hall, Queen's Gardens, St Andrews, KY16 9TA)

Successful applicants will be expected to

  • complete their project and submit an end of project report to FCA&C by the end date given on their application
  • credit the Scheme on any publicity including the Creative Scotland, Fife Council, FCA&C and Fife Cultural Trust logos
  • submit a copy of any publicity produced as a result of the project
  • agree for images of their project to be used by CS, FC, FCA&C and Fife Cultural Trust on their websites or on any publicity produced relating to the Scheme

Other arts grants available for Fife based artists:

  • Culture Grant (see Fife Council’s website or phone 01592 583334)
  • Create in Fife grants (see Business Gateway Fife website)