Grants are sums of money that are awarded to individuals, corporations, and businesses by nonprofits, personal and corporate philanthropies, and institutions like museums and universities or the Government to help or assist them with their work. This article will talk about grants for artists and how to get them.
Individual Grants for Artists
For artists, grants can help you attend a resedency, rent a theatre, Furnish supplies for a sculpture, hire audio engineers, and much more. These grants can be awarded to individuals or a group of people, or organizations.
To receive a grant as an artist, you will need to apply for it and then be selected by the judging committee. Grants are not compulsorily large amounts of money. It could be a reasonable amount of money, and it can be for specific projects or general operations.
What can Artists Use Grants for?
What you can use the grant money for will depend on the particular grant in question. There are two ways that grants can let you use money, this could be general support grants or project-specific or restricted grants.
A general support grant can let you use your grant money for things like managing recurring expenses required to support your arts, for example, you could use the money to pay for the rent of your art studio space, purchase supplies for your studio, or even pay workers.
Project-specific grants as the name implies are for the support of a particular project. These grants are created to bring a particular vision to life. This means that you can only use these grants to achieve or accomplish the particular goal that you have stated in your application.
Most grants will ask you for a complete budget proposal. This will contain a breakdown of how much money you will need and how you will spend them. At the end of the day, you might discover that the way you spent the money may be different from what you stated in your application. This is because there are always many unplanned expenses, changed circumstances, and shifts in priorities that might make you change your budget.
Organizations that award grants would want to make sure that the grant money is used responsibly. This may not be according to the lines but for the overall purpose that the grant was taken.
The Difference Between Grants and Donations
One of the most important things that differentiate grants from other forms of funding by artists (donations, crowdfunding, and campaigns) is that grants will require an application.
When you are soliciting donations, crowdfunding and campaign, you are asking people to support you at whatever level they can afford and feel comfortable with, but with a grant you are putting together a concrete application for a specific sum of money from an institution or the government.
Grants are often fixed or a limited amount of money but other forms of funding will always give you the opportunity to gather large sums of money.
Grants are limited in terms of who can apply. Some of these grants are only available to artists in certain geographical locations, working in certain creative disciplines, and holding certain identities.
Who Funds Grants for Artists
Grants for artists are funded by a variety of different institutions, nonprofits, museums, universities, family-run philanthropies, and corporate philanthropies.
Different types of institutions will have different requirements to apply for these grants. For example, a museum or a university grant might require an application that has some sort of community education aspect to their work. A non-profit might require someone whose work will fit into its broader mission.
Who can Apply for an Artist Grant?
The criteria for applying for a grant are always unique to the particular grant that you are applying for.
Whatever grant you are applying for, will always give details of people, or groups that can apply for it. Therefore, before you apply for a grant, make sure that you fit into the category.
One most important requirement for the application of grants for artists is your level of creativity. Remember you are competing with other artists. Sometimes, the funders will require that you have already raised a threshold amount of money before you can qualify for the grant.
You do not need to be a professional artist or a full-time graduate before you can apply for a grant.
How to Get a Grant as an Artist
First off, you have to find the best grants for you. It could take a lot of time to research and apply for grants and talk about your arts in a clear and compelling way. But, it’s best to go for them, apply now.
Grants are often very competitive to win. This means that you may likely apply for a lot of them before you will get awarded any. Always look out for the intentions, the interests, and the purpose that the grant was created.
