FAQ

Proposal Tips & Frequently Asked Questions

THANKS TO SPRINGBOARD FOR THE ARTS AND MNARTISTS.ORG – These FAQ’s are adapted from Scott Stulen’s excellent facebook post to the St. Paul/Minneapolis CSArt community.

Here are some tips and other advice for crafting your proposal. Each panel is different, but this FAQ should help you craft a more competitive proposal.

Be clear and specific in your proposal. Do not submit a vague proposal or one which has several projects within it. Pick one, and explain it well.
Be clear with your language. Simplify and make sure your ideas are coming across directly.
Your proposal does not need to be a functional item or have anything to do with agriculture. While the idea for the program is based on a farm CSA model, the art work does NOT need to reference its roots. Likewise, preference is not given to any work that references food culture or agriculture.
Can you execute your proposal within the budget, time and scope outlined? Your work samples will be used to judge not only artistic merit, but your ability to reasonably execute your proposal. For example, if you are proposing to make 50 stained glass pieces and your proposal contains work samples of book art projects, the panel will question if you can pull it off a labor intensive project in another medium.
Be reasonable. A thousand dollars is a modest stipend. Be smart and creative in your proposal. Nobody is getting rich by making 50 pieces for $1000. However, this is an amazing marketing vehicle and opportunity to place your work in the hands of paying, eager collectors. View this as a prime marketing device and think of how you can grab a collector’s attention and wet their appetite for more.
The most successful proposals have offered:

High perceived value: The shareholder feels they are getting an amazing piece for the price.
Representative: The proposal relates to the artist’s main body of work (the shareholder feels they are getting a small piece, which is representative of the artist’s overall work). This also works to your advantage as you are hoping to reach new patrons and sell the type of work you want to produce.
Access: The proposal offers access or insight into the artist’s creative process. This is where in other CSArt editions the performing arts proposals have really succeeded.
Exclusivity: Ignore the word commercial in the description. It’s confusing in this context. What we are referring to are some artists who produce multiples in a more production sense (for example a mass produced set of greeting cards). The jurors and shareholders are likely to respond well to music, performance and literature, art, design, and craft objects and experiences that are unique and not something that they can easily get at another venue. So a unique edition or multiple is okay so long as it is exclusive in some way for CSArt Shareholders.

Successful proposals consider use and/or presentation. For example, functional ceramics, 2-D work, small sculptures all are easily understandable as to how they will be displayed or find use for the shareholder. A piece that is more un-traditional can be a successful proposal, as long as its use is at least suggested. For example, from the last cycle of the St. Paul/Minneapolis CSArt, a collaborative work between a textile artist and a photographer was selected. The artists proposed to create a bolt of fabric with fruit and vegetable PLU stickers as the pattern. This unique proposal succeed because it was an interesting artwork left in its raw format, but the artists also included instructions for sewing the fabric into several creations, thus creating a direction for further use.
Consider the presentation. Work does not need to be matted, framed or otherwise finished…and actually for the stipend it would a waste of time and money to do so. What you should consider is creative ways of presenting the pieces that may also function to protect the works. For example, a simple plastic or brown paper wrapper for prints, or foam padding around a ceramic piece with a hand tied bow. These details present well to the panel and also to the shareholder. Don’t confuse these with gimmicks, it’s still about the main work, but consideration of presentation is a part of the overall package.
Work Samples. The documentation portion of the proposal can be past work and does not need to be the actual offering. If you have an example of the piece…great, but if not other work samples are fine. A mock-up is only needed if you think the proposal needs it to clarify or support the description. This is primarily for artists proposing something very different from their regular work and the work samples are not clear.
In the end it’s about the work. Be creative and think about how you would feel if you received your proposed work as part of a share. Maximize the potential of the format, and don’t bite off more than you can handle.