A Brief Guide on How to Get Your Creative Work Seen, Funded, and Supported – Hyperallergic

There are two major aspects of being any type of creative person, in my experience: the challenge of creating the thing and the challenge of getting it seen. If youre ready to dedicate more time to your craft and put yourself out there, lets get started.

To keep this brief, I am focusing on four key areas that can help you get your work seen, supported, and funded: grants and fellowships, residencies, competitions, and social media. By no means an end-all be-all guide, these tips focus on resources for emerging to mid-career creative people.

Here are some basic things youll want to gather:

First things first: Compile a couple of different versions of your bio and project descriptions before you start applying. For example, I have one bio that focuses on my creative nonfiction writing and another that focuses on my journalism work. Sometimes I combine the two, which is easier to do if I have them at the ready.

Queer, disabled artist and writer Karolyn Gehrig tells Hyperallergic that she sets a reminder on her phone every three months to update her bio. Your bio is ever-evolving make sure you dont forget to include any recent events, accolades, or projects.

Ask fellow creatives, friends, and family to read through your bio to make sure that it adequately represents you (and that it doesnt have any typos). I like to keep three major questions in mind when writing a bio:

Many of us dream about winning the lotto or finding a rich patron who falls out of the sky. Alas, we cant all turn these fantasies into realities. This is where grants and fellowships come into the picture.

For starters, give yourself a good foundation by reading the application through one time to get generally familiar with what youll need. Look for uploading requirements. Are your files (artwork images, film clips, etc.) the right resolution? Is your writing sample the right length?

A quick disclaimer: some of the opportunities mentioned here might change over time, so be sure to research each one to see the latest updates on what they might offer.

Programs like the Andy Warhol Arts Writers Grant open up applications each year. There are also plenty of specialized programs that fight against gatekeeping. The Cape New Writers Fellowship, founded by Leo Chu and Steve Tao, mentors emerging writers in film and television from Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

Dont forget to look for local opportunities as well. Journalist and artist Sarah Mirk told Hyperallergic that she published her book Year of Zines: In Which Sarah Mirk (Thats Me!) Somewhat Obsessively Tries to Make a Zine a Day for a Year with the help of a Regional Arts and Culture Council grant. Although the grant didnt cover the entire cost of production, it did help her bring the project to fruition.

California-based artists with disabilities can apply for the National Arts & Disability Center grant a program of the University of Californias Tarjan Center. The city of Glendales Arts and Culture Commission offers grants between $3,000 to $15,000 to individual projects as part of the Art Happens Anywhere initiative. New Music USAs Project Grants support musicians who are creating new music and help them to obtain recording tools and facilitate community outreach projects. The Frank Huntington Beebe Fund for Musicians provides classical musicians who want to study abroad with a fellowship, transportation, and living arrangements.

You can also search for grants related to more general living expenses and needs:

Gehrig recommends you research the jury or committee before you apply. There are some people who are just not going to be receptive to you, she said. It sucks but its not the worst thing sometimes its just not the right fit.

Check the websites and CVs of local artists to find opportunities near you; creatives often list the grants theyve received.

Residencies can give you a unique opportunity to momentarily step away from the everyday things that make your life busy and take up precious time which you could be using to work on your creative projects.

I found my first-ever residency, Idyllwild Writers Week, via the website Submittable. You can search by keywords and follow organizations and it includes opportunities for all kinds of disciplines, from printmaking to screenwriting to translation. Other sites focus on specific genres, like Call for Entry, a resource for visual artists.

When it comes to visual art residencies, I got some insight from two artists, Christopher Squier and Ileana Tejada, with whom I went to grad school.

I asked them what they wish they knew before applying to residencies, and here are some of the tips they gave me:

Pick up the latest issue of your favorite art mag or visit your usual online sites for opportunities that might come up in their ads or sponsored posts. If youre into the idea, see if brands have residencies. Dont forget to search locally: Look into universities near you to see if they might offer opportunities.

Some residency programs bring together creatives from across various disciplines. The Marble House Project in Vermont, for instance, prides itself on creating a multi-disciplinary experience. The organization also offers a culinary residence and family-friendly residence.

If youre a person with disabilities, see if you can get in contact with the organizers of the residency to make sure its accessible. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of work to be done in this area, but spaces like the Santa Fe Art Institute are making an effort; the organizations facility is ADA compliant and they feature two accessible rooms. Gehrig explains that, sadly, discrimination happens when it comes to applying for artistic opportunities as a disabled person.

If you want to apply to a program like that that says that they are dedicated to diversity the best thing to do is to try and find people who have participated in it, in the past, and ask them your questions, said Gehrig.

Some of these residencies require you to pay for your own travel and lodging, while others might furnish you with resources like a sound studio, film recording studio, and musical instruments for the duration of your residency stay.

Im a big proponent of creating your own residency, too. See if anyone needs some house sitting (or pet sitting) or look for a cheap short-term rental (if you feel comfortable) and spend the weekend there.

Competitions offer things like money, publication, and exhibition opportunities as their prizes. And there are, thankfully, opportunities that focus on underrepresented groups specifically. Awards like the Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award focus specifically on helping women of color writers.

Make sure you check the requirements for entry to see whether you need to submit a new project or if you can submit an existing one. Some competitions and programs focus on a specific medium. The Museum of Arts and Designs Burke Prize was created for artists working with a foundation in glass, fiber, clay, metal, or wood.

Other competitions, however, require nominations. In 2018, the San Francisco-based artist Katherine Vetne, whom I went to grad school with, was selected to participate in an exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA). Her work was chosen thanks to national and international committees that work with the museum on everything from supporting women artists to increasing museum membership.

For any opportunity like this where you have to get chosen, the best way to do it is just to be a good, involved member of the community, Vetne told Hyperallergic. Her work was nominated after a curator involved in a committee saw her work at a small San Francisco show (it was literally an apartment gallery, Vetne says).

She suggests that artists find out whether theres a committee in their area (theres a Northern California NMWA committee, for example). If there is, see if you can find out who belongs to one and reach out to them to introduce yourself and your work. Once you start getting nominated for opportunities like these, especially within the same city, it gets easier to get nominated for others.

Vetne also advises that if you discover a new opportunity but the deadline has already passed, set a reminder on your calendar for next year to check the call for submissions again. Sign up for any newsletters associated with the organization, too.

Building a digital platform seems like a really annoying thing to worry about when you mostly want to spend your time making art. Its not a one-fits-all formula either.

Some literary agents want you to have an existing social following, others dont make it as much of a priority. But if you do want to use the platforms to leverage your visibility and get more opportunities, its worth spending some time on.

Writer and illustrator Ludi Leiva told Hyperallergic that she has connected with brands and art directors through social media. Even a quick DM or mutual follow, she says, can turn into an opportunity.

Look for accounts that highlight people in your practice as well as in your communities. Leiva says an art director reached out after seeing her work on the account Women Who Draw. She also recommends finding platforms like Working Not Working, an online talent network, and Creative Mornings, a city-specific event for creative people. Search for these geographically, too, so you can network with people near you.

And dont forget to follow your favorite publications, museums, production companies, you name it. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, for example, has a Tumblr that showcases artist submissions every Friday; the museum also posts some of the accepted submissions on its Instagram account.

Post about your work, your process, your inspirations. Social media can be a great way to get all of these out there, and connect with fellow creators and your future fans. Arts and culture reporter Monica Castillo tells Hyperallergic that Twitter became an important tool for her work, particularly in connecting with editors.

Ive had different editors come and ask me [if] I know about this thing because I was tweeting it, said Castillo. They also see what kind of work I am promoting out there not just my own, but also other clips from friends. That might be one way they find new writers as well.

Writer Lara Ameen tells Hyperallergic that she was invited to contribute to the book Disabled Voices Anthology, published by Rebel Mountain Press, through Twitter.

Editor S.B. Smith asked Ameen if she might have something to submit; Ameen decided to send a piece she wrote during her PhD program that wasnt intended to be published at first. And now its out in the world proof you never know when the things youre working on might reach others.

Here are some tools I recommend:

Writer Keah Brown, author of The Pretty One: On Life, Pop Culture, Disability, and Other Reasons to Fall in Love With Me, tells Hyperallergic that you shouldnt forget to support other creatives on social media, too.

Nobody just wants to see you posting about your stuff all the time without fostering a community, said Brown. A community is the thing that gets people to read your work. Its a community that gets people to buy books and to support events that youre doing.

But its also important to talk about the inherent stress, pressure, and unrelenting hustle mentality of social media.

Its about finding what works for you, but also giving yourself permission to not have to be on social [media] all the time, said Leiva. For all the good it can bring into your creative career, it is notoriously bad for your mental health, so balance is important.

I like to repeat this phrase to myself often: the worst they can say is no.

Applying is hard work. And it requires a level of stubbornness that gets easier as time goes on. The more prestigious awards out there, like the Guggenheim Fellowship, can take years of waiting. Writer Ada Limn received a fellowship in 2020 and tweeted that it was her 13th year of applying. Yup, you read that correctly.

This isnt to discourage you its to remind you that even the most accomplished artists still get rejected.

When youre starting out, sometimes it feels like nothings happening or you feel like nothings happening for you, but its happening for other people. Vetne said. [But] just because you dont get that one opportunity or you dont get opportunities for a couple years or however long doesnt mean youre not creating the foundation for something.

Ameen says its important that you invest your time in opportunities youre truly aligned with. This goes for writing for publications, but also opportunities in general.

Go where you think your piece would be the strongest, and read different publications, said Ameen. Dont just submit and not read them.

Im rooting for you. Go forth and apply. And remember, the most important thing is that youre creating what you love. I cant wait to see it.

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A Brief Guide on How to Get Your Creative Work Seen, Funded, and Supported - Hyperallergic