More Soup for You in Toledo, and Around the World

Toledo Soup is accepting submissions for its 4th event, scheduled for March 9th.  Toledo Soup is an organization that gives microgrants to individuals and organizations to fund a good, activity or service that enhances the greater Toledo area.  And who makes that determination?  The voters who pay $5 to eat soup and bread and vote on the finalists that Toledo Soup choses.  The voters plunk down the money, eat, listen to the pitches of would-be grant recipients, and vote.  Whoever gets the most votes for their project gets the evening's take of money.  The application is short, but must be sent by the middle of February.   Past winners include Glass City Pedicabs and ArtAround Town.  Applicants can include small businesses, individuals, and nonprofits--as long as they are doing work calculated to enhance the northwest Ohio community.

Toledo Soup is one of dozens of organizations around the world that offer microgrants given by soup-eating voters.  Most of the Soup Network offers microgrants to artists.  Check this list--there may be one near you.

Grants for Cuban Artists and Artists of Cuban Descent

We've written about financial help in some form or another for artists, but there's also money for artists of a particular heritage.  Two foundations have grants for Cuban artists, and for those of Cuban descent.  The Cuban Artists Fund has grants ranging from $5,000 to $7,000 for such artists in artists in four areas: visual arts, literature, performance, and music.  A grant is given each year in each category.  They also provide some residency for Cuban-born and Cuban-descended artists.  Spanish-language information is at this site.

The Cintas Foundation is likewise devoted to Cuban and Cuban-descended artists, and offers fellowships of $10,000 per year to artists in architecture, literature, music composition and the visual arts.  The money is distributed quarterly and allows the recipient to pursue their art. 

Opportunities, Residencies, and Grants for Eastern European Students and Artists

A number of opportunities exist for Eastern European artists and students who want to pursue their work internationally.  A well-known institution is the Open Society Foundation, which has programs for NGO's, but also for individual students.  Visit their grant webpage and specify in their search wigit that you are searching for grants for individuals in the field of education and youth, and in Europe.  DO NOT restrict yourself to grants currently open--something may be open in the near future.  It may have closed last month, but may be something to keep on the horizon for later.

CEC Artslink offers residencies for artists from 39 countries in Eastern Europe and the Middle East for five weeks to work in the United States.  Applications were taken this past fall for those in the performing arts and literature, but in the deadline for artists in visual and media arts is October, 2013 for the following year. 

The Worldwide Institute Supporting Exchange (formerly the Worchester Institute for Student Exchange) offers housing and a small ($50) stipend for students who are studying at institutions in eastern Massachusetts.  They include those in the arts and research.  Contact WISE for more information.

Money for Dancers to Start Their Career...And to Recareer

We know that there are some financial supports out there for performing artists like dancers, to further their careers.  I'll run by a couple here, as well as a grant to re-career to something else.

The Yard, Inc. has residences of four weeks for dance artists.  Two are offered: one for dance companies who have been working together for at least three years, and the Bessie Schonberg Individual Choreographers Residency allows as many as four independent choreographers and eight dancers in a residency in Martha's Vineyard to work on their craft.  The residencies offer housing, space, mentoring, stipends, and a chance to perform.  They also offer internships with housing, a small stipend, free tickets, and some other benefits for those who want mentoring and experience with arts management. 

The Princess Grace Foundation offers scholarships for dancers at non-profit schools, or fellowships for dancers at non-profit companies.  The also offer financial help for students of other performing arts and playwriting, choreography and film.  The 2012 deadlines have passed, but there will be announcements for next year.

For Native American dancers, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation has fellowships in visual arts, filmmaking, music, dance, literature, and traditional arts and crafts for Native Americans, Native Alaskans or Native Hawaiians.  The 2013 applications are now closed, but keep an eye open for next year.

And for those on their way out Career Transition for Dancers has scholarships for current and former dancers to finance re-careering education or business endeavors.  One scholarship provides scholarships for graduate level education in fields outside dancing; the other gives small scholarships and seed money for post-dance career launching.  They also provide post-career and career transition counseling. 


 

Some Emergency Help from Employers, Unions, Etc.--Groups Taking Care of Their Own

When disaster strikes, the Red Cross and other disaster aid agencies rush to assist, but what other help could one possibly get?  How about from their employers or union?  Or professional organization?  Some large organizations do indeed help their own.

Among employers, the employees of Jack in the Box fast food restaurants can be eligible for assistance from the Jack in the Box Foundation from natural or personal disasters.  Employees of Food Lion may be eligible for grants of up to $500 if they can provide evidence of need.  The Office Depot Foundation offers aid to employees who have suffered from natural disasters.

At least two unions, the Teamsters and the Communication Workers of America, offer disaster relief grants for members who have been hit by natural disasters.  And the National Automobile Dealers Association and the National Association of Realtors does the same for members of their professional associations. 

It's not exactly a professional organization, but the Craft Emergency Relief Fund gives grants and loans to craft artists who have suffered "career-threatening emergencies."  Besides loans and grants, they provide some forms of "brokered assistance," including discounted rates on materials and discounted or waived booth fees.  See the website for more information.

More Places for Artists to Find Aid and Work Opportunities, Financial Aid

I've written some previous posts with online resources for artists, but now there are some more to add.  The Pew Charitable Trust has a website with resources for artists.  Since Pew is Philadelphia-based, there is a slant towards Philadelphia and Pennsylvania in some of the entries, but some of them are nationwide.  It includes grants and work opportunities, but also legal, medical and insurance resources, promotional services,emergency help and more.  However, if you click a link to the name of a resource, it will take you to a description of the resource, not the website.  You then need to click the website link on the description page.  My favorite resource listed is Duotrope's Digest,  an interactive list of over 4,000 publishers of novels, short stories, poems, nonfiction articles etc.  You can search for your next publisher by genre, subgenre, pay scale, royalty rate, and more, and sortable by rate of submission acceptance, pay, and response time. 

Another source of help aimed for people new to the arts is Art Emerging.  It has a short section on grants, art shows, how to look out for art show scams, residences, and more. It seems terribly unformed--it's supposed to be created by artists, but there are dead links.  I wouldn't consider it a first place to go, but you might find some little nuggets to help you out.

Eat Soup, Support Creativity in Your Community

This Sunday, Toledo Soup will host its inaugural soup dinner and vote for 5 creative projects that have been vetted by a panel of local people from 36 submissions.  The doors open at 5 p.m. at 116 10th Street in downtown Toledo, and then they will pay $5 to listen to the five candidates pitch their projects.  Then they vote, and the top vote-getter gets the money from attendees to fund their project and the voters eat soup, salad and bread. 

This is just part of a worldwide phenomenon.  The Soup Network maps places in North America, Europe, Egypt and Australia where similar projects are supporting the arts, or sometimes, as in Chicago, community groups as well.  It's part of the growing trend of using social networking to raise money in the arts, like Kickstart, where artists announce their financial goal and a time limit when describing their proposed project to people who have a chance to finance it.  Either they get the goal, in the time prescribed, or they get nothing.  If not, the project fails and no money changes hands. 

Teh internets offer some exciting new ways for artists to reach potential funders and new markets, so I'm looking forward to the upcoming book, New Markets for Artists: How to Sell, Fund Projects, and Exhibit Using Social Media, DIY Pop-Ups, eBay, Kickstarter, and Much More by Carey Brainard in a few months. Buy it or nag your local library to buy it.  Meanwhile, check and see if your community has a soup circle that can help fund your project.

Grants for Travel.

Who’s going to pay you to travel? Some organizations will, but remember, it’s like any other grant—your interests have to align with the grantors! If you are thinking, “who’s going to finance my vacation?” the answer is probably nobody. But if you’re thinking, “I need money to study French culture and language in France”, then maybe the Societe des Professeurs Francais et Franophones d'Amerique can help. Or, if you want to study Polish culture, the Kosciuszko Foundation might be what you want. The same is true if you want to study in a Scandinavian country—the American-Scandinavian Society may be what you are looking for. If you wish to provide service to other countries, the Rotary Club has scholarships for that purpose.


Here’s a strategy for finding cultural scholarships: go to Foundation Grants to Individuals (available at more than 600 U.S.cooperating collection libraries), and in the Type of Support box, type travel. In the geographic focus box, type international. Another field that tends to give grants to individuals to travel and study is the arts. If you are an artist, try using travel in the Type of Support box, and Arts in the Field of Interests. Using this strategy, you can find organizations like Meet the Composer, which sponsors travel expenses for composers.

Besides foundations, the government also sponsors some travel for study and work purposes. The National Security Education Program offers the Boren Scholarships for travel and study in strategically important foreign countries. The National Endowment for the Arts has grants to support travel for writers to further their work, too.

If you are need funds for biomedical research-related travel, you can use Scan Grants, a free database of non-federal grants in the field. One of the categories on the right hand side of the page is travel grants—click it and you get the full list. But if you want to narrow it down to grants relevant to your needs, do a more complex search, and choose the travel category, with a word search in your field, like "cancer" or "dermatology." You will get a list of grants for travel to conferences, study, or other research.

What An Artist Needs...a Fiscal Sponsor

There are not a lot of individuals who fall in the category of being eligible for grants on a regular basis, outside of researchers and artists.  For artists, fiscal sponsors are a necessity. It's simple.  Most grants are only given to entities with a 501c3 (nonprofit charitable) status by the IRS, and individuals don't have that.  But a "fiscal sponsor" is an entity that does have the status, and serves as a "pass through" organization.  They receive the money, and then give it to the individual.  So where do you find such an organization?

Artists can find them in a number of places, but it's good for the organization to have some sort of logical relationship to the individual or small, non-501c3 organization for whom they are serving as a pass-through.  So, an art organization that deals with artists.  One place to look for one is at the Fiscal Sponsor Directory. Once you go there, do a search by service category, and you can choose "Arts and Culture."  You will see an alphabetical list of organizations that provide this service, along with the criteria for eligibility, and conditions.  They may require a small part of the grant as an administrative fee, and may have other stipulations.  They also have more suggestions for fiscal sponsorship.  You can also go to the New York Foundation for the Arts resources website and do a keyword search for "sponsorship."  Another place to try would be the local or state art's commission near you, and check whether or not they offer this service.  A prominent national organizations that does fiscal sponsorship for artists on a national basis is Fractured Atlas.

Another place to look is in the Foundation Grants to Individuals.  This is a fee-based database, so to access it for free, see one of the several hundred Foundation Center Cooperating Collections near you, which will have it. When you get to FGI, choose "type of support," and enter "fiscal agent/sponsor."  They list 92 such organizations.  You can narrow it down by the "field of interest" search box, and choose "art." For more information on fiscal sponsorship, see the Foundation Center's (totally free) online information on the in's and out's of using a fiscal sponsor.   For more information, buy or go to your local library for the Gregory Colvin book, Fiscal Sponsorship: Six Ways to Do it Right.

Some Health Insurance Options for Artists

Health care is being addressed in one way or another for many population groups, but it’s always been a toughie for independent workers in America, but especially in the (mostly) financially precarious world of artists. Not every place is as art-friendly as Austin, TX, which has health insurance programs for musicians. But there are some possibilities for artists to explore in their search for affordable health insurance.


AHIRC, the Artist’s Health Resource Center, offers guides to health insurance opportunities in several states and regions. They also have a state-by-state guide to insurance, drugs, as well as any programs set up just for artists.

But if you are a lone artist, how are you supposed to get the advantage of group rates? At least one non-profit group specializes in just that: Fractured Atlas. Artists can buy a policy through FA not only in health insurance, but casualty and liability. They have an online state-by-state guide as to what their members can get along with coverage, including a “health proponent,” a service to help guide members through the system, make appointments, and co-ordinate care when necessary. Also, see their Artist’s Insurance Guide with suggestions on everything that artists—or artist’s organizations, like theaters or dance groups—might need in the way of insurance.

Emergency Money for Artists

If you are an artist between a financial (or health, or housing) rock and a hard place, these sites may be for you. The New York Foundation for the Arts has, among its generally awesome resource page, a page for emergency help for artists. This includes natural disasters and other difficult spots in life. The money is for professional artists, not dabblers, and is for small amounts.  There's also the "Emergency" heading in Pew's Artist Resource Guide.

But what if you need a sort of "bridge fund" for an unexpected project cost? That's where the Foundation for Contemporary Art comes in. Their emergency fund is specifically for such cases--NOT living expenses. It's a small amount of money for an "unexpected opportunity" or expense, when there is not time to get money from another source.

Also, check out the roundup of emergency sources from Womensarts.

Don't be a Starving Artist!

So where can an artist look for funds to do his or her work?

There are some great/smart places to look for arts grants. One is the online Foundation Directory of Grants to Individuals (see the July 24^th entry), which can be accessed at a Foundation Center cooperating collection. Or, you can subscribe for at-home access for about $10 a month.

Another great (free) place to look is the wonderful website for grants to individuals set up by Michigan State University. Besides classifying grants by eligible population groups (minorities, women, disabled), and academic levels (graduate, postgrad, etc.), Jon Harris, the creator of the website, has them categorized by subject, including arts, music, photography, writing and film. See all the categories that apply to you, and check them out. There may be some cross-posting between the categories, but you will find excellent resources.

State arts councils are also good places to seek grants for both art groups and individual artists. Programs for individual artists may include artists in residence programs. The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies has a directory of its membership. The National Endowment for the Arts also has a listing that includes not only state arts councils, but regional ones as well. And, speaking of the NEA, the listings of their grants for both organizations and individuals is another place to look.

Another possibility is public art. Many states have a program where some small percentage of the cost of a new state building project (say, 1%) is set aside to buy art for that public space. To find these state programs, see this Florida website. It has links to many other states. Also, check the local art commission where you live to see if your city has such a program.