This is a list of exercises and prompts that I find helpful when preparing applications for grants, residencies, and fellowships. Rather than working directly on the questions in an application form, these prompts generate material that can later be slotted into the relevant questions as required.
It is important to do this in a space where you can be ugly - getting these ideas out might require using coarse language, being sincere to the point of cringe, or being negative about your own or other people’s work. Sometimes I do these exercises on paper, so that I can later translate them into professional language for longer-term storage, and destroy the originals afterward.
This is something of a cliché, admittedly - but that means there are lots of resources out there that can guide you through the process (e.g. https://www.mindtools.com/a5eygum/what-are-your-values). I particularly like the version of the exercise given in Devon Price’s Unmasking Autism - I strongly recommend this one if you’re Autistic, or experience other forms of masking/camouflage and/or neurodivergence.
You can easily spend a week perfecting your goals - I like to use https://yearcompass.com/ for in-depth goal setting. For the purpose of application writing, it might be easier to focus on one core question: what do you want to make in the next 12-18 months? If you have a sketchbook or notebook of ideas, check to see if anything listed there is calling to you right now.
Do you have a longer-term dream project? Something you want to make one day, that is currently out of reach? If so, what is the next step you hope to take towards this distant horizon?
What grants and opportunities are you applying to in the next 8-10 weeks? For each of them, consider the following:
Do they have any webinars or information sessions coming up? Can you attend?
What are they looking for? Identify around 5 keywords that describe their priorities.
Who have they supported in the past? Get a sense of the language used to describe these projects - not to directly copy them, but to gauge the tone and themes.
What are they offering? Not only funding, but material resources, spaces, tools, mentors.
How do your goals align with what they are looking for and what they are offering?
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Gathering information about opportunities and keeping track of applications is a challenge in itself - if you like, you can use my Application management tool.
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Describe a moment when you made a career-altering decision - why did you make that choice? What was the outcome?
What do you wish you understood ten years ago? Or, what were you wrong about back then?
If you have been practising for at least five years, what were you doing five years ago? How is it different to what you are doing now?
List some firsts:
First time your work was shown in public
First time you were paid to make art
First time you were selected for an honour or accolade
First time you experimented with the medium you are working in today
First time you said “no” to something
Have you faced barriers due to your life circumstances? What words do you use to describe them?
You may want to consult Silvia Duckworth’s Wheel of Power & Privilege (https://kb.wisc.edu/instructional-resources/page.php?id=119380)
Describe a time when you faced a barrier - what did it teach you about the world?
What can you see from your standpoint, that other people often ignore or don’t notice?
Describe a moment when you became disenchanted - when a system that everybody takes for granted didn’t work for you, or when you had to let go of a belief you had about the world.