DEADLINE March 15 and October 15 annually
GRANT AMOUNT $500.00
Contact for Questions: mara@nwrdc.org
Northwest Minnesota Arts Council, 115 South Main, Warren, MN 56762 (218) 745-9111
Instructions for Completing the Grant Application Form
1. Before filling out the application form, read these Student Artist Training guidelines.
2. The information requested in this form is needed for the Arts Council to adequately review your request for grant funds. Please answer, as completely as possible, all questions. The applicant is responsible for the quality and scope of responses.
Suggestion for working with on-line application: Print out all the application pages first. Fill in the entire application with pencil as a draft. When satisfied, type your final information into the form and print. Make sure you send the completed form and all attachments to our office by the deadline date. (You will not be able to save your information into the form for future use.)
3. If space on the application form is inadequate, attach additional sheet(s), do not attempt to make the boxes larger than they appear on the form .
4. Send in the mail to our office one original of the grant application.
5. Applications must be postmarked by the deadline dates listed on the cover above to be eligible. Remember that it takes our office two months to process the grant application so your activity dates must be two months after the deadline in order to qualify.
6. E-mail your grant questions to mara@nwrdc.org or call Mara Wittman at 218-745-9111. Remember that only residents within our seven county service area are eligible to apply, they include the Minnesota counties: Kittson, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, and Roseau.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Northwest Minnesota Arts Council one of eleven regional arts councils in the State of Minnesota. The regional arts council system provides a decentralized mechanism for the distribution of arts funding.
The Northwest Minnesota Arts Council offers granting programs, information services, technical assistance, and arts programs to residents of the seven counties of northwestern Minnesota. The seven-county area includes Kittson, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake and Roseau Counties.
The Northwest Minnesota Arts Council developed the Student Artist Training Program with State funding to provide financial support to students committed to learning new arts techniques. Especially techniques that directly contribute to their creative growth and development.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Students currently in grades 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 attending one of the public or private high schools in the seven counties of the Northwest Minnesota Arts Council area are eligible to apply. The seven counties are: Kittson, Marshall, Norman, Pennington, Polk, Red Lake, and Roseau. Students with little or no previous formal arts training, as well as students with extensive backgrounds, are encouraged to apply.
Students may apply to study one of the following arts disciplines:
– Literary Arts — Visual Arts — Music — Theater — Media Arts — Dance
Students who have received a Student Artist Training Award in the past are eligible to apply for a second award. It is encouraged that they apply in a different arts discipline. A student who has received two awards may not apply a third time.
HOW TO APPLY
A. You must submit a completed Application Form and an Artistic Statement and send it to our office, Northwest Minnesota Arts Council, 115 South Main, Warren, MN 56762. The deadlines are March 15 and October 15 annually. This is a postmark deadline so if you are sending it on the deadline make sure the post office stamps it in front of you. Applications postmarked after the deadline will not be eligible. If you are sending your application by email you must make sure that we have printed it off by the deadline date and all signatures must still be on the application form.
1. Application Form: An application form is included with these Guidelines. Complete Sections A, B, C, and D. Section C must be signed and dated by your parent or guardian.
2. Artistic Statement: This statement must consist of one typed, single-spaced page written by you, which responds to all four questions listed below. Please use a 12 size font and leave one inch margins on all sides. Also, be sure to put your name at the top of the Artistic Statement page.
a. What do you expect to learn from a mentor or training experience that you are not learning now?
b. List some of the most challenging things you have done with your art and describe why they were challenging to you.
c. As an artist, what are your strongest and weakest areas?
d. Is there a professional artist (past or present) whose work you especially admire? Why?
B. You must schedule a Review Session interview. Interviews happen between two to three weeks after the deadline. It works best if you can come to our office in Warren. We can also do a Skype interview if necessary.
C. You will present, during the interview, a sample of your prepared work. Depending on your art form, you will either bring a portfolio of work or do a short performance as detailed:
1. Literary Arts: Submit with your Application Form by the deadline date, two to five typed poetry or prose pieces which you have created within the past two years. They must be original. Include your name on each page and when each piece was written. You will discuss these pieces during the Review Session interview.
2. Visual Arts: Bring to the Review Session five examples of your work created within the past two years. They must be original, signed and dated. If your work is large, fragile, or difficult to transport you can bring photographic work samples to pass amongst the jurors. Please try to bring at least one original.
3. Music: You will present a live, three to five minute piece of music at the Review Session. Credit the source of your performed work. A piano will not be available. If you are a pianist, please submit with your application a DVD or audio taped version of your work sample.
4. Theater Arts: You will present two live, highly contrasting pieces of work of up to three minutes each at the Review Session. (For example, you may present one comedy piece of up to three minutes and one serious piece of up to three minutes.) Credit the source of your performed work.
5. Media Arts: You will present at the Review Session, either (a) a three to five minute sample of your original taped work or (b) five examples of your two-dimensional work. Work samples must have been created within the past two years. (Media arts includes video, photography, audio, and computer imagery.) A television and DVD and screen will be available at the review site.
6. Dance: Submit with your Application Form by the deadline date, a three to five minute sample of you dancing in a very small group or as a solo. Work samples must have been created within the past two years. A television and DVD and screen will be available at the review site. You will discuss this piece with the review panel at the Review Session. Credit the source of your work.
Footnote for Visual, Literary, and Media Arts: The work that you present at the Review Session must be original. It cannot be copied from any published source or from work created by other artists, unless you have purposely and creatively modified or reinterpreted the original work, using your own vision or style. If another artist’s work served as a source for an original student work, that artists’ work should be credited.
THE REVIEW SESSION INTERVIEW
A. You must attend a Review Session interview. The main session will take place in Warren on a Saturday about two weeks following the deadline. Depending on the number of student applicants, we may need to add a second main Review Session date. The Northwest Minnesota Arts Council will inform each applicant, by e-mail or phone call of the exact date and time of his/her review.
B. The Review Session assesses a student’s motivation, commitment, creative and imaginative thinking ability, and the ability to acquire skills rapidly. Students with little or no previous formal training or education in the arts are not considered at a disadvantage in this process. This review panel is made up of arts educators, professional artists, and one member of the Northwest Minnesota Arts Council.
C. The Review Session will last no longer than 15 minutes for each student. Students are reviewed individually. The arts review session has two components:
1. The review panel will look at your work samples and discuss them with you (see Section II.).
2. The review panel will briefly interview you.
D. Each student applicant will be rated by the review panel. All applicants will be notified by mail of the student award results a month later.
APPEALS POLICY
Any applicant who can show cause that established grant review procedures were not followed may file an appeal according to NWMAC policies which are available upon request. There is no right of appeal for dispute of decision of the NWMAC with respect to artistic quality, artistic excellence, the quality of the artistic activity, or the work of an individual artist.
GRANTEE RESPONSIBILITIES
If a grant is received, the grantee must:
1. Sign and submit to the NWMAC within 45 days of receiving the funding notice, the contract and a request for payment form.
2. Agree that the project will be carried out within the next calendar year. Any changes must be requested and approved, in writing and in advance, with the Arts Council office.
3. Include the credit line and in all publicity, advertising, news releases, printed programs, and promotional material.
4. Insure that access to participation in the project will not be limited on the basis of national origin, race, religion, age or sex.
5. Be legally responsible for the completion of the project and for the proper management of the grant funds.
6. Submit the final report form along with supporting materials and documentation of expenses within sixty (60) days of the project’s completion to ensure no future penalty.
7. Permit the NWMAC reasonable access to all activities supported by the NWMAC for purposes of an audit or evaluation. The NWMAC shall have access to any books, documents, papers, and records regarding the granted project. These records and supporting documents shall be retained for a period of three (3) years following the completion of the project.
8. Return the entire grant award to the NWMAC in the event the project cannot be completed as stated in the application.
If necessary, additional but clearly outlined conditions will be added to the contract.
GRANT PAYMENT AND FINAL REPORT
Payment of 80% of the grant award will be sent to the grantee within forty-five (45) days after the signed NWMAC Artists Grant Contract and Request for Payment are received by the NWMAC office.
The grantee may claim the remaining 20% of the grant award by submitting for approval a final report and budget within sixty (60) days of the project’s completion.
The final report is an extremely important document. If the project has been carefully managed, the project description and budget in the original application and the final report should be very similar.
The Arts Council is aware that as some projects develop, some minor differences may arise, but applicants should take every precaution to insure implementation, operation and evaluation of the project as described on the application.
Applicants who fail to submit the final report within the prescribed time without good cause, subject to NWMAC approval, will automatically be considered ineligible for future funding.
GRANT TERMINATION
A grant may be terminated at any time under the following circumstances:
a. by mutual written consent of the NWMAC and the recipient;
b. upon the written request of the recipient, but such termination shall not necessarily relieve the recipient of its responsibilities as set forth in the Individual Artist Grant Contract;
c. by the NWMAC upon the failure of the recipient to comply with one or more of the conditions of the Individual Artists Grant Contract. Such termination shall be effective upon receipt of written notice by the recipient.
If termination occurs after funds have been distributed, the entire amount of the distributed grant award must be returned to the NWMAC.