It’s Kresge Time: Artist Statement Workshop, Dec. 2

Oh hai, Live Arts and Film & Music Detroiters! It is time for you to stockpile some holiday snacks, smash your ego, and open up your 2018 Kresge Arts Fellowship applications. Remember, it is not enough to simply open your application and look at it, you must also work on it (a little each day, would be my suggestion), until the day when you open it to work on it some more, and feel with deep certainty that you have done the absolute best job possible of representing yourself and your practice, and any failure to receive a Kresge Fellowship in return is THEIR LOSS, not yours.

Then, and only then, may you press “submit.”

Here are a couple quick tips:

• Get your documentation together – UGH I KNOW, RIGHT??? The 2018 application doesn’t officially open until Dec. 1, but you can TOTALLY start working on this before then! This is especially hard for stuff like Music and Live Arts, where the work is in the past and maybe you did not arrange for official documentation (seriously, this needs to be part of every professional art practice. Once that work is done, it’s gone, baby – do something to make a record of that thing you put all your effort into, going forward). But wait! There were people there, right? And we all have internet-enabled recording devices, recording every minute of our lives instead of living it – and that sucks in many ways, but one way that it is good is it means someone, somewhere probably has some documentation of your performance or project. GO LOOKING NOW. It’s going to take a minute.
• Think outside the box – It’s just a plain fact: certain disciplines are more saturated than others. If you’ve been applying forever as a visual artist, but your art has performance or interactive elements, consider applying for Live Arts, a much newer and probably less overcrowded discipline. Why not? Worst case, the Kresge folks will disqualify you. Best case, you will be the only application in “Live Statuary” as opposed to one of hundreds of Sculpture candidates next year. You are a creative person, so think creatively about your work, instead of falling prey to easy labels! Give yourself every advantage!
• Make a statement – No one is going to pretend that submitting a grant application is easy. Good news, KAID knows this, and they have made a series of workshops to help you develop aspects of your application. I will be speaking at one of them, on Saturday, Dec. 2, from 11-1, focused on writing artist statements. This, like all aspects of the Kresge application process, is totally FREE. Guys, that is a tremendous gift. A lot of places charge application fees. This costs you nothing but sweat equity and ego.

Swallow your pride! Swing for the fences! Dare to dream! Come see me on Dec. 2 and pepper me with questions about artist statements and resumes! Don’t sleep on your Kresge application! Start today!!