If you are entering into tertiary study, or have recently completed your studies, it may be time to sit back and assess your next moves. To help you along, ArtsHub has collected the best articles to help you make those next steps.
10. How to write a successful grant application
Fifteen steps to writing the grant application that has the best chance of bringing home the money you need.
Many arts organisations survive largely on the strength of their proposals and the success of grant applications so it’s essential to write them in a way that grabs attention and ticks all the boxes. ArtsHub asked professional grant writers Rebekah Duke from Duchess Creative and Rebecca Lister, freelance writer and Artistic Director of Anvil Productions for their advice. This was their key point to take away:
RESEARCH THE OPTIONS
Don’t go straight to the first grant giver you have in mind. Instead survey the field, taking in everything from the Australia Council and Catalyst to state bodies, local councils and philanthropic trusts. Banks, large corporate organisations and even some educational and health institutions offer grants. Make sure you know what is on offer and what kinds of projects they fund. Don’t just read their funding guidelines, try to get a sense of what motivates the grant giver and what will appeal to those on the judging panel.
Read: How to write a successful grant application
9. How exhibiting online can save you dollars
Why exhibit your art in a gallery when potential customers can purchase your artwork online from anywhere in the world.
Hiring physical spaces to showcase your artworks is the way of the past. Online only galleries and exhibitions are cropping up faster than ever and allowing artists to determine how they choose to showcase and sell their artwork.
‘While online art experiences can’t – well not yet anyway – replicate the true experience of standing in an exhibition space viewing art, there are many advantages to exhibiting and selling art online,’ Zinnia O’Brien, former Gallery and Museum collection manager and art entrepreneur, told ArtsHub.
O’Brien is a co-founder of a new peer-to-peer art exhibition platform, The Exhibit. This online platform will allow curators, artists and art galleries to curate exhibitions online for free.
Online gallery platforms allow artists to share their exhibitions to social media and to sell their original artworks straight to the public. All these benefits enables artists to present their art pieces without needing a physical exhibition space or needing to cover the overheads traditionally involved with exhibiting art.
Read: How exhibiting online can save you dollars
8. Pushing past breaking point
Creating art is mentally challenging and can push artists to breaking point – so how do artists persevere? And do such challenges make their art better?
Every artist will experience moments of mental and emotional stress during their career. Art-making can be chaotic, even precarious, as well as joyous and all-consuming. Even the best days can require ingenious problem solving executed with creative flair – usually on a deadline.
ArtsHub spoke with artists from across the sector about the strategies they use when dealing with creative challenges, and asked them: does pushing past the point of no return result in better art?
Read: Pushing past breaking point
7. How to get your hands on that scholarship money
Looking for a boost in your study funds? A scholarship is a great cash infusion for your education and looks great on your CV.
Whether you’re finishing your secondary school education and looking around for a university, or enrolling in an arts degree as a mature-aged student, finding ways to fund your education can be stressful. Scholarships – financial support awarded to a student, based on academic achievement or other criteria – are one means of making tertiary education more affordable. They also look superb on your CV.
Finding a scholarship that is suited to you – and which is offered at the school you are likely to attend – sounds like an impossibly daunting task, which is why we’ve made it easier for you.
Read: How to get your hands on that scholarship money
6. How arts education encourages a growth mindset
The way we approach challenges impacts how much we learn from them; a trait we continue to develop throughout our lives.
A growth mindset determines a particular attitude towards failure. It describes an underlying belief about learning – that a person believes putting in the effort means they can achieve better results and develop new skills.
A fixed mindset is the opposite. It is when a person believes they are born with a particular skill level or ability, leading them to view the learning process in a more negative light, which can result in them becoming defensive or insecure when faced with a challenge.
Depending on your attitude to learning, and keeping in mind that a person is not one or the other throughout their entire life, how you react or view new challenges influences how much you learn from the process. Of course, teachers have an important role to play in developing a growth mindset in students. To find out how arts education and training fosters a positive learning attitude in students, ArtsHub spoke to several tutors and lecturers. It turns out the mindset we adopt and shape throughout our education has ongoing career benefits
Read: How arts education encourages a growth mindset
5. How to make most of your artistic residency
Visual artist Rehgan De Mather shares his journey as an artist in residence at Melbourne’s fortyfivedownstairs.
‘I recently spent four months at fortyfivedownstairs creating a new body of art inspired by recent travels to Mexico and South America, including the Day of the Dead and Carnival; alongside the impact of life changes such as marriage, parenthood, and building a new home,’ said visual artist Rehgan De Mather.
The residency not only gave De Mather the opportunity to create a substantial body of work; it also allowed him to be part of a community.
Read: How to make most of your artistic residency
4.How to make money from your blog
Blogging is a business anyone can get into but only a few can make pay.
Blogging, vlogging, Instagramming, Snapchatting: today’s media is filled with voices competing on channels that keep multiplying. But with such a crowded marketplace how do you cut through the noise and become truly influential? And once you have a following, how do you take it to the next level and make that influence pay?
This year’s VIVID Ideas festival kicked off its program at the Museum of Contemporary Art on the weekend with a panel discussion entitled Taking it to the next level.
Read: How to make money from your blog
3. On burn out and getting started as an emerging writer
Starting out as a writer can be difficult. Here’s some career advice from Melbourne writer Sam West.
Navigating the world of publishers and editors can be difficult, especially when you are just starting out as an emerging writer. To offer some career advice and insight on getting started in the industry, ArtsHub spoke to freelance writer Sam West.
West has written for Vice, i-D, The Lifted Brow and Smith Journal, among others, and was formerly the editor of Melbourne local culture guide Three Thousand.
Read: On burn out and getting started as an emerging writer
2. How I got my start
Successful creatives illuminate their career trajectories to reveal insights into starting out in the arts industry and keeping up momentum.
When scrolling through a curated Linkedin page or reading a well-crafted artist bio, it can difficult to pinpoint how someone we admire first got their start. With the difficulties and learning curves rarely advertised, it’s not difficult for our minds to assume it was success after success.
Yet there are always stumbles and
Read: How I got my start
1. Free tools for students who want work in the arts
Your degree is important but it’s not enough. The arts industry is incredibly competitive so getting work will require using every resource you can muster.
Poor but keen pretty much describes anyone doing a creative arts degree. Creative faculties are packed with students who are passionate about the arts and enthusiastic about their university projects.
But expecting your course to deliver everything you need to get a job is naïve and lazy. Availing yourself of broader resources is what will distinguish you from the pack and make future employers or clients consider you worthy of their time and investment.
