Tips on Applying to the Grants for Creative Individuals

When applying for a grant – any grant – the first thing to do is to find out what the granting organization wants from its applicants.

How will the grant selections be decided? If there is a review process, there may be some aspects that are in your control (like answers to narrative questions or choice of work samples). And there may be aspects that are out of your control (like who they pick as reviewers). Our advice? Identify what parts you can control and focus on making them as strong as you can. This article will offer some tips on how you can do that for the Mass Cultural Council’s Grants for Creative Individuals program.

But First
We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention a few basics of good grant-seeking. For example, you should carefully read, and follow, the program guidelines. Familiarize yourself with the instructions ahead of time, so you’re not rushing on the evening of the deadline.

In other words, start early. And we understand if you’re rolling your eyes, because granting organizations always say this. But the reason they always say it is that a lot of people wait to apply until the last day, which means high demand on the online application and staff time for last minute questions. On deadline day of the Grants for Creative Individuals’ first year, high web traffic caused the grants management system to lag and experience slow or incomplete uploads. All this to say, if you start on the last day, you may not be able to reach staff to get your questions answered and the application process could be delayed at a time when you really cannot afford a delay. Late applications will not be accepted, and there are no possible exceptions or extensions to the deadline. The safer bet is to start well before the deadline.

So, what is our grant looking for?
The mission of the Grants for Creative Individuals Program is to equitably advance creativity throughout the Commonwealth with unrestricted grants to individuals who demonstrate achievement of creative expression and commitment to their artistic/cultural practice.

Grants are awarded to individuals whose applications most clearly meet this mission. The process for determining this includes a number of factors. But the key one for you, as an applicant, is that reviewers from the Massachusetts creative/cultural community will assign your application scores based on how closely they believe your application has demonstrated 1. Achievement of creative expression and 2. Commitment to your artistic/cultural practice.

What do we mean by achievement of creative expression? What do we mean by commitment to artistic/cultural practice?
Let’s define our terms. By “achievement of creative expression”, we mean that what you are trying to do or express with your creative work is successfully reflected in the work itself. In the Artist Narrative, you’ll have the chance to share the goals, questions, themes, or other factors that drive your work. The strongest applications will include both a compelling Artist Narrative and Work Samples that reflect what is laid out in the Narrative.

By “commitment to your artistic/cultural practice”, we mean that your Artist Narrative and Work Samples reflect an ongoing focus on your creative practice. This can include commitment of time, energy, learning, innovation, and/or purpose. You should try to avoid any suggestion that your art is more of a hobby or distraction. Your samples and the way you talk about your art should reflect a strong and enduring dedication.

Crafting your Artist Narrative
Your Artist Narrative can be submitted either as text or as an uploaded audio or video file. In both cases, it’s meant to be brief: 1,500 characters including spaces and punctuation (note: that’s characters, not words – a frequent mix-up!) or 2 minutes of audio or video.

The Artist Narrative is where you can make the case that you and your work are a match for the program mission outlined above. As you are preparing your Narrative, ask yourself: What are you trying to do or express or accomplish with your creative work? What are the questions or ideas or goals that drive it? Since space is limited, be succinct and direct. Your work may be complex, mysterious, or multi-layered, but the Narrative should be clear and straightforward.

Which work samples should I submit?
When picking your work sample(s), first make sure to align the samples you submit with the creative practice you describe in your Artist Narrative. For example, if you discuss painting as your creative practice, the strongest way to reflect that would be images of your paintings (rather than, say, videos or music).

Then, select the work sample or work samples that most clearly reflect the “case” you made in your Artist Narrative.

For example, in the Artist Narrative of her FY24 Grant for Creative Individuals application, filmmaker Naomi Yang wrote about how she strives in her creative work to connect the personal and the historical, with a strong emphasis on place and landscape. Then, in the work sample she submitted (an excerpt from her film Never Be a Punching Bag for Nobody), she provided a clear demonstration of how she achieved this creative expression. You can see a trailer for the film, which explores an East Boston boxing gym and the forgotten history of its neighborhood, below.

DeShaun Gordon-King, another past grant recipient, is a great example of an artist who strongly matched the program’s mission of demonstrating “Commitment to your artistic/cultural practice”. In his Artist Narrative, he shared that he had trained in classical and jazz flute, but that the pandemic led him to a focus on healing that gave his music purpose. That same commitment and purpose was clear in his work samples, several videos of virtuosic flute performance.

Along with aligning with the Artist Narrative, we recommend you send work samples that convey what is specific and unique to you as a creator. If you’re not sure what that is, enlist the opinion of a trusted peer, whose objective distance can be helpful.

If you’re sending an excerpt, choose a “meaty” part. If you’re uploading multiple files/samples, give some thought about the through line the connects them. What is your cohesive vision?

Beyond that, make it easy to see, read, or understand your work. If you are submitting image files: we’d recommend a pixel dimension of at least 600 pixels, minimum. Smaller, and it could look pixelated when viewed by the reviewers.

If you are submitting pages: readability is your friend. Avoid diminishing margins and fonts just to fit more in. More is not better.

If your work is interactive, conceptual, or time/performance-based, think hard about how to best convey your intended art experience in a compressed format and time frame. Obviously a short video or five images from your work won’t capture the whole, in-person experience. But think of the audience member watching your work on-stage or walking through your installation: what’s the best way to recreate their experience, or something close to it, for a reviewer sitting at their laptop?

(Further research: read ArtSake’s post on documenting your work.)

Work Sample Description
This brings us to the Work Sample Description. The Work Sample Description should “set the table” for experiencing your work. Put yourself in the reviewers’ shoes: sitting at a computer, experiencing your work onscreen. Things that would be obvious in a book or a gallery or a performance venue may not be obvious in that context. Even details that seem self-evident to you (like whether your submission is a complete piece or an excerpt from something longer) may not be clear to someone approaching your work from a different perspective.

Funding Priorities and other factors
The selection process for the Grants for Creatives Individuals includes scores from reviewers and several other factors, some of which fall into the “out of your control” category mentioned earlier. We’ll discuss them below, mainly as a way of pointing out where you DO have decisions that can have an impact.

First, the review process distributes grants equitably according to geography level, with approximately the same percentage of grants as applications. For example, if 7% of the applicants are from Essex County, we will award roughly 7% of the grants to individuals in Essex County.  There’s nothing you need to do for this distribution, other than enter your current Massachusetts address in our online system.

Second, the process includes Funding Priorities. The program’s Funding Priorities reflect Mass Cultural Council’s vision and values as an Agency. Applicants who meet the Funding Priorities will automatically receive a modest rating advantage in the program’s scoring. In most cases, either you will meet the priorities or you won’t, and if you do not, we still encourage you to apply. The Funding Priorities are only one factor in the process.

When you are filling out your Grants for Creative Individuals application, just answer the questions in the “Prioritization Factors” section as best reflects your background and your work. In some cases, you may be asked to upload documentation to verify you meet a given priority. You can read more about this in the program FAQs.

Avoid exaggerating your circumstances just to meet a Funding Priority. The important thing is to authentically convey yourself and your creative practice in the Grants for Creative Individuals application.

In summary
We understand that by applying to our grant program, you are entrusting us with your creative work. Mass Cultural Council considers it a privilege to interact with Massachusetts artists in this way. It’s also important to acknowledge that, despite consistent increases to our funding to individuals over the past five years, we are unable to fund the majority of applications (in FY24, we funded approximately 8.6% applications submitted to the Grants to Creative Individuals program).

As we work to continue to increase and improve our support of creative individuals, we appreciate your continued creative energy. And we look forward to your future applications to our programs.

Related reading:
Tips on Applying as a Culture Bearer or Traditional Artist
Fundamentals of Applying for Grants
Funding for Massachusetts Artists and Culture Bearers

Add a comment below if you have a question on a topic not covered here.

Image and media: Music artist Oscar Noel Carrasco, Grantee ’24; trailer for NEVER BE A PUNCHING BAG FOR NOBODY by Naomi Yang, Grantee ’24.