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
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. Please submit up to 20 images in your portfolio, along with the required narrative statement. All information will be in one pdf document uploaded to the grant portal.
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 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. The applicant should submit at least one full-length documentary or three shorts.
Please note that full-length documentary films are typically between 60 and 120 minutes long. A mini-documentary (series, etc.) can be between 5 minutes and 30-45 minutes. Stand-alone documentaries can be about a minute to 10 minutes. These are estimates. Applicants with long works should choose one long work to submit. Applicants with shorter works should provide three examples.
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. The work must be a completed work. 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.
For more information
Scarlet Sims
Artist Services Manager