How do you obtain that first arts grant?
You want to share your art—to create pop-up theater, a neighborhood dance happening, a public mural or installation, a beautifully curated butterfly garden at the corner of a park. But you’re just one person with a shovel or paintbrush. What’s the next step?
Many emerging artists turn to grants to make their work available to the community at large. This might sound intimidating. Don’t grants go to big organizations such as Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy or Ballet Tennessee?
Sure, but they can go to you and your one-man music studio, too, especially if you have a cunning plan to lift up your community with your work. There are people in Chattanooga who have your back.
“Our trustees understand artists need to make a living,” says Melanie Silva, adviser with the UNFoundation. Her organization gives small grants up to $3,000 to projects that make Chattanooga better—art projects included. “We once funded a yoga teacher who asked only for supply money. She didn’t ask for money for herself. We made sure her grant included funding to pay her, too.”
You + We
In Chattanooga, many grant-giving organizations are thinking quite consciously about creating a better city—greener, techier and yes, more creative. To catch their eye, look at your work in relation to the people and spaces around you. What do you have to offer?
Rodney Van Valkenburg, Director of Grants and Initiatives at ArtsBuild, urges new artists to dream big when pursuing a first grant. ArtsBuild funds Community Cultural Connections grants, Van Valkenburg says, which help individuals or small groups “get arts out to as many people in the community as possible.”
You don’t have to be a 501(c)3 organization to obtain these grants of up to $2,000, he says; you do need to align with the program’s mission of creating “more arts in more places for more people.”
This is a diversity initiative in a very broad scope of the word, Van Valkenburg explains.
“When we talk about diversity it’s about the diversity of people who benefit, whether a certain section of town, disabilities, age range…we believe everybody should benefit from our great resources in the arts in Chattanooga.”
“In philanthropy, we are making this place where we live a place to be proud of,” Silva says. “Artists create the environment that people want—that they can’t create themselves.”
Silva and Van Valkenburg have similar advice for artists applying for small grants: have a plan in mind, including what you intend to do, who will perform the work, and what will happen as a result of your project.
“Imagine, ‘I’m doing X and because we did X, Y will happen,’” Van Valkenburg illustrates. “[The outcome] could be students being more engaged, having more appreciation of the arts, a deeper understanding or more skills.”
While a clear vision is important, professional-level writing is not.“Do the best you can,” Van Valkenburg says. “I encourage you to show [a draft] to somebody else. The good news is we have a panel of two or three community members, so when we get a grant, the person who applies meets with those people and they have a conversation about that project. If it isn’t clear on paper, you have the opportunity to start talking and let them hear your enthusiasm. They’ll ask questions until they get clarity.”
Such conversations can lead to changes in projects’ scope and design.
“Sometimes we ask for a rewrite to impact more [people],” Silva says.
“We discuss who this will impact, how it will impact,” adds Buddy Shirk, a donor and voting member of the UNFoundation. “Is this going to make Chattanooga better? It doesn’t matter whether your budget is [the full grant amount] or smaller. We may look at smaller ones if we have extra funds, and we might look at your grant next month if we aren’t able to fund you this month.”
All you have to do is dream. Then ask.
It's all up to you. So ask.
ArtsBuild’s Community Cultural Connections
Rolling deadlines; funding available starting July 1
artsbuild.com/grants-programs/grants (scroll down)
UNFoundation Microgrants
Applications reviewed and winners chosen monthly
theunfoundation.org