In this two-panel workshop, we will explore everything you should consider in your next grant application.

In the first panel, top individual-artist grantmakers in Chicago will explain best practices for approaching grant proposal writing in a way that results in a clear and effective application. In the second panel, local artists will share their strategies for completing winning proposals.

Immediately following the first panel, artists will have the chance to sit down with a grant maker for 15 minutes to get elements of current or in-progress grant proposals reviewed. During one-on-one sessions, speakers will review artist statements, project statements, project budgets, work samples, and any other aspect in need of revision.

Panelists | Grantmakers

Danny Orendorff is a curator, writer, teacher, and activist currently working as Programs Director for Threewalls, a non-profit gallery in Chicago, IL and as Grant Administrator for the Propeller Fund. Orendorff was previously Curator-in-Residence & Interim Director of Artistic Programs for The Charlotte Street Foundation in Kansas City, MO, where he also taught at the Kansas City Art Institute. Previously the Assistant Director of The Renegade Craft Fairs, his independent curatorial projects focusing on themes of queerness, feminism, non-normativity and DIY or craft-oriented art production have been hosted by The Center for Craft, Creativity & Design (Asheville, NC), Glass Curtain Gallery (Chicago, IL), and SF Camerawork (San Francisco, CA), among others. Orendorff has had essays published by the Chicago Cultural Center, H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute, Grand Arts, and the Daum Museum of Contemporary Art, and his writing has been featured on Art21, Art Practical, Art in America Online, and Bad at Sports.

Teresa Silva is a writer, curator, and the Director of Exhibitions & Residencies with the Chicago Artists Coalition. Silva manages BOLT Residency and HATCH Projects, as well as the MAKER Grant, an annual award that provides unrestricted funds to individual artists in the Chicago area, with generous support from OtherPeoplesPixel. Recently, Silva was a Curatorial Fellow with the 2015 Rapid Pulse International Performance Art Festival and is a juror for the 2016 exhibitions for THE SUB-MISSION in Chicago. Silva has presented exhibitions at the Chicago Artists Coalition, Exposition Chicago, Defibrillator Gallery, the Comfort Station, the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, the African-American Cultural Center of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and The Soap Factory in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Sara Slawnik is the Director of Programs at 3Arts. Sara joined the 3Arts staff as the first Director of Programs in October 2014, after working in the nonprofit arts sector since 2002. In her role at 3Arts, Sara oversees all programming, including the annual awards program, 3AP (3Arts Artists Projects), residency fellowships, and other artist support initiatives. Most recently, she was Deputy Director of the Chicago Artists Coalition where she managed fundraising and operations as well as helped to steer programmatic growth and build awareness of the organization’s professional development services for artists. Previously she served as the Program Director at the Ellen Stone Belic Institute for the Study of Women and Gender in the Arts and Media at Columbia College Chicago, facilitating a range of multidisciplinary programs. She also held positions in development at The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, The Drawing Center in New York City, and The Archives of American Art, a research unit of the Smithsonian Institution. Sara earned a BA in the History of Art from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and has completed continuing education courses in fine art and screenwriting.

Stephanie Whitlock is the program officer at the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, which makes project-based grants to individuals and organizations and produces public programs to foster the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture, and society. At the Graham, she oversees the foundation’s grants program and has responsibility for the development and implementation of grantmaking priorities, policies, and procedures and for evaluating funding proposals. Stephanie has served as a review panelist for arts awards for numerous organizations, including the City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and 3Arts Artist Awards. She is an active member of the philanthropic community, including the Donors Forum in Chicago, where she co-chairs of the Arts and Culture Funders Group, Chicago Women in Philanthropy, and Grantmakers in the Arts. Prior to her work in grantmaking, Stephanie worked in the arts and cultural sectors, including the Smart Museum of Art and the University of Chicago Press, and she has taught at the University of Chicago, where she completed her Ph.D. in history.

Moderated by Melissa Potter, a multi-media artist whose work deals with women and their rites of passage from marriage to motherhood. She exhibited at venues including White Columns, and Bronx Museum of the Arts, as well as film festivals including the VideoDumbo Festival and the Reeling International LGBT Film Festival. Ms. Potter is a three-time Fulbright recipient to Serbia and Bosnia and Hercegovina. She has been the recipient of other awards and residencies including the Soros Fund for Arts and Culture, ArtsLink and the Trust for Mutual Understanding. Her critical essays have been printed in BOMB, Art Papers, Flash Art, Metropolis M, Hand Papermaking, and AfterImage among others. She is founder of the blog, Gender Assignment. She is currently an Associate Professor and Director of the Book & Paper Program in the Interdisciplinary Arts Department of Columbia College Chicago.

Panelists | Artists

Cecil McDonald, Jr. uses photography, video, and text to explore the intersections of masculinity, familial relations, and the artistic and intellectual pursuits of black culture. McDonald studied fashion, house music and dance club culture before receiving a MFA in Photography at Columbia College Chicago, where he currently serves as an adjunct professor and a teaching artist at the Center for Community Arts Partnership at Columbia College Chicago. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, with works in the permanent collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art, Chicago Bank of America LaSalle Collection, and the Harris Bank Collection. He was awarded the: Joyce Foundation Midwest Voices & Visions Award, the Artadia Award, The Swiss Benevolent Society, Lucerne, Switzerland, Residency and the 3Arts Teaching Artist Award. McDonald participated in Light Work’s Artist-in-Residence program in July 2013.

Meida McNeal is an Independent Artist and Scholar of performance studies, dance and critical ethnography. Dr. McNeal works with the Chicago Park District as Arts & Culture Manager supporting partnerships and programming initiatives across the city’s parks and cultural centers. She is also faculty in Interdisciplinary Arts at Columbia College Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Education. Recent performance projects with HPP include The Ladies Ring Shout, The Sweet Goddess Project, Price Point, & Juke Cry Hand Clap: A People’s History of House & Chicago Social Culture. HPP’s newest work, Ma(s)king Her, will premiere in April 2016 at Jay Pritzker Pavilion, and is supported through residencies with the Arts & Public Life Initiative/Univ of Chicago and Propeller Fund. honeypotperformance.com

John Preus (rhymes with choice) (b.1971) (MFA-University of Chicago. BA-Gustavus Adolphus College) is a Chicago-based trans-disciplinary artist, designer and furniture-maker. Preus founded Dilettante Studios in 2010, cofounded SHoP with Laura Shaeffer (2011), and Material Exchange with Sara Black (2005), and was the creative director of the Rebuild Foundation shop until 2012, and project lead for Theaster Gates' 12 Ballads for Huguenot House, at Documenta 13. Preus was the 2013-2014 Jackman-Goldwasser resident at the Hyde Park Art Center, a 2014 Efroymson Fellow in sculpture and installation, 2014's first place winner of the Maker grant and a 2013 finalist, a finalist for the 2015 Artadia Award and the 2014 Creative Capital grant, and a 2014 DCASE artist grant recipient. He also received the Propeller Fund award as a founder of SHoP. Recent exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, The Elmhurst Biennial, the Hyde Park Art Center, The Heilbronn Kunstverein in Germany, The Huguenot House in Kassel, Germany, The Portland Museum of Contemporary Craft, The Devos Art Museum in Michigan. He was represented by Rhona Hoffman at EXPO 2015. johnpreus.com

Registration

Online registration for this program is now closed. Registration is available at the door prior to the event!

$15 | General Public

$10 | CAC Artist Member

FREE | Current BOLT / HATCH / LAUNCH Residents (registration required)