 Firefly 2012 Creativity Grant Guidelines & Information

The Firefly Arts Collective, (FAC), is excited to offer a grant program for our annual event in the woods. These grants are intended to support and promote your interactive, community-based, collaborative, radically-expressive creations. Proposals can include installations, performances, 2-D and 3-D works, fire art, activities, or other participatory and interactive projects. Only projects that meet these criteria should be submitted. For example, a sound project (band, DJ, etc.) must include an interactive component or additional performance aspect to be considered. Individual theme camps will not be funded, but proposals for projects/events placed within Theme Camp areas are welcome to apply.

Initial Requirements (before you even read on)
You must have already registered for a ticket during the pre-registration window of March 9th-19th prior to applying for an Art Grant.
If selected, your project must be set up no later than Thursday July 5th at 6PM. July 4th is a Wednesday this year and the event ends on Sunday July 8th at noon.
If you are submitting a Fire Art Project, please be aware that all Fire Art may be subject to location and late night operation restrictions. In addition, all Fire Art proposals will be reviewed by the Fire Safety Committee in addition to the Art Grant Review Committee.

Timeline
Submission deadline: Sunday, April 8, 11:57PM EST
This is a strict deadline. Proposals submitted after the deadline will not be considered.
Notification: Monday, April 30
All applicants will be notified via email by the 30th of April. If your project is funded, we will send you a contract to ensure that you are willing to commit to using the funds as proposed and that you agree to follow through on your project. If you fail to send in the contract by the contract deadline, your art grant funds will be distributed to the next grant in the waiting list.

Once the signed contract is received, you will receive 75% of your awarded amount; the remaining 25% will be distributed once the project is completed and documentation is received, (see question # 13). Your project will be considered to be complete once proof and documentation have been delivered to and reviewed by the Art Grant Review Committee.

Ticket Registration Deadline ------ March 19th 2012
Art Grant Application Deadline --- April 8th 2012
Art Grant Recipients Notified ------ April 30th 2012
Contract Acceptance Deadline ---- May 6th 2012
Firefly Event ----------------------------July 4th-8th 2012
Documentation Deadline ------------ August 1st 2012

Funding
Although we will support as many projects as possible, please keep in mind that the Firefly Art Grant budget is limited as it is funded by ticket sale proceeds and private donations. However, all requests, large and small, will be considered and partial grants are likely to be disbursed. For 2012, we have over $8,000 to award.

Please do not include transportation (to and from Firefly) as part of your budget. As long as you can get to a few common ‘Art Hubs’ in the Camberville/ Boston area, FAC will be arranging for free transportation for your art. Your budget can include anything you need to make the project happen (e.g.: art-specific, materials, fuel, etc.). But time and effort is how we all participate and contribute to the Firefly Community, so please don’t include labor costs or wages in your budget.

Criteria and Review
Proposals will be evaluated based on the following factors:
• interactivity/participatory
• originality/creativity
• feasibility
• service to the community
• general awesomeness

Art Grant Review Committee
In order to create an impartial review, applications will be blinded before they are submitted to the Art Grant Review Committee. The committee members will score each proposal based on the criteria listed above.

Please know that while we may not fund all proposals, your work is very welcome at Firefly, and is an essential part of the festival.

Note about Tickets
In addition to the donation of your time and efforts, all attendees pay for their own ticket to the event. Please be advised, that to be considered for an Art Grant, you MUST have registered for a ticket during the pre-registration window of March 9th-19th. Artists who have had their work selected for a grant will be guaranteed one ticket (whether or not you have been picked in the lottery), but you will still have to pay for it.

Submission Instructions
By Sunday, April 8th at 11:57PM EST, please email your application and any pertinent supporting documentation to: FF2012artgrant (at) fireflyartscollective.org.

Supporting documentation may include (but need not be not limited to):
Drawings, sketches and plans (hand-drawn or computer generated)
Photographs
MP3s
URLs (make sure your name is nowhere to be found on the site)

There are two parts to the application - Part One is un-blinded and contains your contact info and is to be the body of your email. Part Two is the blinded section where you will talk about your proposed art grant. For ease of the Art Grant Review Committee, we prefer that Part Two be a PDF document, (but Word and Excel files will also be accepted).

At a minimum, (for Part Two), you will be submitting two files - your application and an itemized budget. We strongly urge that you submit all materials via email, however, please contact us as soon as possible to work out an alternative submission method if needed. If you are embedding images into your application, please attach the embedded images separately as well. If you have large images as part of your supporting documentation, please compress them and send them as a separate email.

For Part Two of your application, please use a word-processing program and place your answers under the corresponding questions. This makes both the blinder and the reviewers jobs much easier. Place your Project Name, and only your Project Name, at the top of ALL pages of Part Two of your application. Your application may take up 2-4 pages depending on how long your answers are.

If you have questions about how to complete the application form, or any questions about the process or guidelines, please email FF2012artgrant (at) fireflyartscollective.org

Take as much space as you need to answer the questions, however, please be specific, clear and succinct in communicating your project to us. All fields are required in order to submit your form, even if it's just a ‘N/A’.