Individual Artist Fellowship

The Individual Artist Fellowship program annually awards to up to 18 creatives $5,000 each in six categories. These grants are made directly to individual creatives who live and work in Arkansas. This grant is for already finished, not proposed, projects.

Applications open Dec. 1 and close Feb. 5, 2024

Art by Joelle Storet, 2023 Fellowship recipient for visual arts.

Individual Artist Fellowship are Arkansas creatives who use original, expressive, innovative or artistic methods to create. Fellows make creative works in all genres in multiple ways. The definition is broad but includes culture bearers, makers, storytellers, teaching artists, songwriters, visual artists, actors, filmmakers, musicians and writers.

You are eligible for this grant if:

You are 21 years old or older.
You live in Arkansas and have lived in Arkansas for at least one year upon application.
You are an individual creative who uses their own, original works in a creative field in the current categories. Categories change annually.

You are not eligible if:

You do not live in Arkansas.
You have not lived in Arkansas a full year as of Dec. 01, 2023.
You are a nonprofit, a business or a group, and not an individual.
You previously earned a Fellowship award.
You entered more than one category for the Fellowship award this cycle year.
You are proposing a project, instead of showcasing your current work.
You do not have a social security number or an alternative ID for legal residency.
Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism staff, their immediate family members and members of the Arkansas Arts Council advisory board are not eligible to apply.

Apply online only by clicking on the button below. Create a grant portal account using the code aac.

Portfolios should include an artist statement or narrative statement and examples of work completed. Text should be 12-point font (such as Times New Roman or Arial) with 1-inch margins and double spaced. All portfolios must be 21MiB or less. Except for literary arts, we encourage creatives to add images when possible. The entire work is submitted in one pdf document.

All application material is submitted anonymously. Please do not include names on files, images, etc. Do not include your name in your bio or artist narrative.

1. Submit an online application with a single pdf document that contains between three and 20 images (20 pages of a novel or memoir in the literary category) and has a narrative statement (up to 3,000 words) that answers the questions:

How does your work fit into this specific category?
Why is your work important to you and/or your community? Or, what makes your work impactful?
What is the story behind your work and you as an artist?
How has your art been viewed or engaged people in your community, statewide or nationwide?
Where are you going in your creative journey?

2. Optional: Links or supplemental information can be added to portfolios. Links are used for video or mp3 narrative statements and for media links, such as newspaper stories. Applicants may submit video or audio recordings (up to 5 minutes) in lieu of written narratives. These may be housed on public platforms, such as Google Drive. News releases, recommendations from mentors and nrews stories are encouraged, however, the applicant's name must be blacked out.

3. Artists who want to add high resolution images to their portfolios should use a free hosting site, such as Google Drive, and add a public link to their work inside their portfolios. Please note that all of your content goes into one pdf.

Click below to learn how to create a PDF to help in the application process

CLICK HERE

APPLY ONLINE

Use grants code: aac

Categories

This work is experienced through two or more senses: sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell. The work must create new, immersive and dynamic ways to experience art in more than one way. For example, previous Fellows created sculptures with sound and lights activated through “play:” visual and audio art room displays; and outdoor installations that used natural elements to create music. For this category, we recommend creatives include links to videos that better showcase the nature of their work into their portfolios.

This work uses creative means to inspire, evoke, engage, teach or unify communities. The work addresses something the community cares about, creates dialog or other forms of engagement, establishes or emboldens relationships and/or underscores place identity, creative placemaking, history, quality of life or social issues. Past Fellows in this category were recognized for communal mural works, community-center theater, performance work, folk music initiatives and cultural preservation through song and storytelling.

Submissions must be work that was available and open to the public at no cost for at least one day.

This work focuses on nonfunctional, visual crafts created by using traditional and/or historical methods, means or materials and using modern and contemporary aesthetics or concepts. Judges will look for aesthetics more than utilitarianism. The submitted work must trace its roots to tradition, culture, history or heritage. The work must include either or both works in glass or pottery.

This art must be original, innovative, exclusive and completed works that highlight technical skill or mastery in the creation of custom-made contemporary, wearable artworks and designs. Construction should involve handmade processes. Judges will look for work that shows artistic expression, innovation, cohesiveness and/or are art exhibitions. Works for theatre, stage, film, and runway are acceptable.

This docu-genre is open for creatives who have created a work in the documentary genre. Work must have deal exclusively with facts and real-life, true events, issues, places and people. The docu should inform and educate about a specific topic or subject. Any mode of docu is acceptable, but the work must tell a true story that include interviews, scripts/outlines or structure, and technical filmmaking techniques. Links to example videos/clips should be included in the portfolio.

This work is for creative nonfiction or fiction writing between 80,000 and 120,0000 words that fit into the category of novel or memoir writing. A novel is a fictitious, book-length narrative that includes a character and action with a degree of realism. A memoir is a longform narrative based on the author’s memories and experiences and told from the perspective of the author. The works cannot be a series of essays or a series of short stories. The work must be original and submitted by the creator. Submissions must include 20 pages of example work specifically from the novel or memoir; double spaced text at 12-point font; context text as needed in the intro for judges; and an outline of the work being submitted. All material, examples and narrative statement, must be in one portfolio document.

FAQs

Creatives can apply for only one category per year. We highly encourage you to review the body of your work and determine which category your craft most strongly fits. You will need to answer how or why your work fits into the category you chose.

How does your work fit into this specific category?
Why is your work important or significant to you and/or your community? What makes your work impactful?
What is the story behind your work and you as an artist?
How has your art been viewed or engaged people in your community, statewide or nationwide?
Where are you going in your creative journey?

No. All applications are judged “blind” by independent panels. We ask that all saved documents, images, supplemental material, links, narrative statements and portfolios NOT include your name. If newspaper clippings are included, please black out your name. If YouTube or Google Drive links are included for audio or video, please remove your name.

No. You do not need an artist statement, traditional artist bio, resume or cover letter. We require only a narrative statement (up to 3,000 words) or a narrative video or audio (up to 5 minutes). We also will ask for a one-sentence description of you and your work and a headshot that we can use for marketing, should you be chosen for a Fellowship.

The portfolio is an all-inclusive document, saved as pdf and uploaded to the grant portal, that includes the applicant’s written or video narrative statement, examples of their work as inserted images or text, descriptions of their work and links to any supplemental material, such as news stories. Because news stories or recommendation letters must have the applicant’s name blacked out, we recommend you black those out then save your story to a free platform, such as Google Drive, and upload. Please make sure all your material is open to public view so that our judges can see it.

Example Portfolio

Example Blank Application

Our Fellowship awards are highly competitive. Please provide your best work, clear images and descriptions or context for your work. Below are five tips to help you create the best presentation of your work.

Pick work that shows your voice while displaying cohesiveness, depth and breadth of work, and technical skill and quality.
Choose the category that best fits your work, then explain to judges how your work fits into the category you chose. Explain how your work is important.
Do not propose a project. This grant is for creatives who have been living and working in Arkansas. Tell the story of what your art is and why you are doing it. This grant is not for projects, and judges will not consider your proposed project in the evaluation.
Make sure to provide context about your work. If your work, for example, is related to a historical event, explain that event and give some background so judges understand the significance of your work. If your work is about community engagement, add text and images that convey community engagement and outcome to your portfolio.
Answer all the questions for the narrative statement in your portfolio, and have someone else read over your material before you upload it.

Applications close Feb. 5. After that, six different independent panels comprised of professional creatives will choose recipients for our Fellowships. This cant take time, up to a few months. We expect to have final approval and announcements in May 2024.