FIREFLY 2017 ART GRANTS - TEA (Anniversary) and TEMPLE GRANT APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN!
Over the years, the Firefly Arts Collective (FAC) has been proud to provide grant support to Firefly artists to enable them to express and fulfill their varied creative visions. These grants are intended to support and promote radically-expressive, community-based, interactive and/or collaborative projects that help define and shape the creative core of the event.
Art is a central part of Firefly, and the event wouldn't be the same without the wonderful pieces that have been brought to Vermont over the years. Bringing art is a great way to add a piece of yourself to the event and contribute/participate in a meaningful way.
There are seven different types of grants:
Anniversary Grants (2018 Tea Grants)
Temple Grant
Creativity Grants
Legacy Grants
Burner Exchange Grants (BEX Grants)
Skillshare Grants
NEW! Smol Grants
This year’s anniversary grants are called the Tea Grants .
The Tea (Anniversary) Grants (open!) are intended to support projects of a larger and more ambitious scale than the typical Creativity Grant project. Named for traditional wedding anniversary gifts, these grants celebrate Firefly's lasting commitment to art. These projects must be appropriately large in scale, spectacular, and suitable for presentation at a variety of venues. Anniversary grants are awarded for up to $1000.
The Temple Grant (open!) supports the creation of the Temple at Firefly Arts Festival each year. The Temple aims to satisfy both civic and spiritual needs by creating a revered gathering space at Firefly. While the Temple should be spiritual in a general sense (and true to the spirit of the event), it is not intended to be a religious symbol, and overtly religious tones should be avoided. The Temple is placed in the field, and provides a space for Fireflies to seek quiet contemplation and introspection at the event. It is of the utmost importance that the Temple defines a physical (and emotional) space; that said, it does not have to be a traditional shelter or building. It is traditional for the Temple to serve as a place for participants to leave offerings, and the structure will be burned on the final evening of the event. A single Temple Grant is awarded for up to $1000.
The Creativity Grants are our primary grants, and are designed to fund creative new projects to be shared with our community during the Firefly event. Creativity grants are awarded in tiers of $150, $300, $500 and $700.
The Legacy Grants are provided to support existing projects which have been to Firefly in the past. Art can be exposed to many elements at Firefly — mud, rain, sun, and most of all, people — and this grant is designed to provide funding to help with wear and tear produced by this exposure. Legacy grants are awarded in tiers of $100 and $300.
The BEX Grants are for art that already appeared either at a regional burn event or Burning Man, and showcases the local flavor of its origin. Grant money is intended to be applied to minor maintenance / improvements and shipping costs to Vermont. BEX Grants are awarded for up to $1000. These grants are not open for submission yet.
The Skillshare Grants are a special type of grant, debuted in 2016, and allow artists to broaden or deepen their skillsets by funding specific classes or training in an artistic field. These grants are not open for submission yet.
The Smol Grants are new for 2018! A Smol Grant is our lowest grant level, between $40 and $99, for artists whose ideas are big but whose budget is smol. There will be a limited quantity of these grants, and more detail about how they work is coming soon!
Schedule:
** Please note: Only Tea and Temple grant submissions are open! **
Tea + Temple
January 29th: Tea and Temple grant applications open
February 19th: Tea and Temple grant applications due
March 1st: Tea and Temple grants awarded
Submissions are handled through the [ http://grants.fireflyartscollective.org/ | Firefly Art Grants Web Portal ] . If you signed up in 2017, your accounts are no longer active. Please sign up again so we are sure to have your most current information on-file!
For even more information, please visit the following web page: [ https://www.fireflyartscollective.org/participate/art-at-firefly/art-grants/ | Firefly Art Grants Overview ] .
Feel free to reach out with any questions to: [ mailto:grants@fireflyartscollective.org | grants(a)fireflyartscollective.org ] .
Thank you!
- Firefly Art Grant Core
Interested in helping bring art to Firefly? Want to help choose what kind
of projects are funded for the event?
This is call out to any of you who might be interested in helping to review
the proposals for Firefly's Art Grants
<http://fireflyartscollective.org/art-grants/> this year! We are looking for
approx 15 folks who are interested in helping to make this aspect of Firefly
successful.
Requirements:
1. You must have attended at least 1 (one) previous Firefly in order to
join and participate in the selection committee.
2. You must not be applying for a 2018 Firefly Art Grant.
3. There are three blocks available; you can sign up for any number of
blocks, but for each block you must attend both dates. Meetings will take
place in Somerville (a short walk from Davis Square). These discussions can
be lively at times; food and drinks are potluck-style/bring your own.
-
Tea (Anniversary) and Temple Grant Meetings:
-
Thursday, February 22nd at 7:30 PM
-
Thursday, March 1st at 7:30 PM
-
Creativity and Legacy Grant Meetings:
-
Thursday, March 8th at 7:30 PM
-
Thursday, March 15th at 7:30 PM
-
Skillshare / BEX / Smol (*We only need a couple people max for this
group; it may be rolled into previous groups, time-depending*):
-
Thursday, March 22nd at 7:30 PM
-
Thursday, March 29th at 7:30 PM
4. Commit to reading and recording your thoughts on up to 40 applications,
which may take 4-6 hours of brain time.
The Intense Details:
The job requires a lot of reading and talking as we typically receive over
35 applications for Creativity Grants and a smaller pool of Tea
(Anniversary) and Temple Grants. We will have 2 weeks to make our decisions
for the two sets of grants, with two meetings per grant. That's a total of
4 meetings altogether. We strongly encourage volunteers to come to both
blocks of meetings, but if you can only come to one set that's OK too.
This is a commitment of about 15-20 hours; 6-8 hours of reading and
cogitating and four (maybe six) 2-hour meetings where we hash it all out.
Once the application deadline has passed, the committee has about a week to
read the applications over and fill out a review sheet to decide how well
each application met the criteria. We review the applications for
Thoughtfulness, Creativity, and Feasibility (explained in detail here
<https://www.fireflyartscollective.org/participate/art-at-firefly/art-grants/>
and during the meetings).
This is followed by the aforementioned meetings where we compare notes and
formulate follow-up questions for all applicants. We wait a week to give
time for artists to get their replies back to us, then we meet again and
make our final decisions.
If you would like to participate, please sign up via the Art Grants portal
by Feb 15th:
*https://grants.fireflyartscollective.org/voters/new
<https://grants.fireflyartscollective.org/voters/new>*
Any questions? Email us at grants(a)fireflyartscollective.org!
<3,
Art Grant Core