Artist Resources, Grants for Artists, Creative Projects, Making Money for Artists

It’s rejection season, baby. For creative beings who bravely put themselves out there this fall and winter, I tip my hat to you—regardless of the outcome. The first months of the year are a notoriously brutal season for artists because, while a small percentage of us just received happy news (you finally got that grant!), the vast majority of working artists are questioning why they poured hours of their precious free time into applications that go nowhere. 

It is no secret that women of color filmmakers are operating within an industry that has historically privileged and rewarded white filmmakers. So many women of color filmmakers are grossly underfunded, if not altogether excluded from telling their own stories in their own ways.

For years, as an indie music artist I have researched and practiced building my own brand. Workshops, books, influencers in the world of indie music, and even academic courses teach the components of branding in terms of look, sound, story, message, etc. As it's known, even though it can sometimes be grouped into unappealing thoughts associated with “marketing”, “branding” is a necessary and powerful component to be able to share our art with the world. 

Piano and violin duo Gracie and Rachel make music that engages with anxiety, depression, and the general feelings of self-doubt that so many of us experience but can have a hard time talking about.

Plague, revolution, and spending copious hours alone with your thoughts happen to be very relatable experiences for many of us in the past few years. They’re also some of the organizing principles of the life of Julian of Norwich, a 14th-century English mystic, first woman author of an English book, and the subject of Caroline Golum’s medieval live-action drama, Revelations of Divine Love. 

As the art world considers the different ways that artists can be supported now and into the future, it can also be helpful to look to the past for successful models. 

Et Alia is planning a very unusual kind of theater performance. On March 13, they will be presenting a performance with no rehearsals, no director, and a script sealed in an envelope for one actor. “White Rabbit Red Rabbit,” written by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour, was initially born out of his inability to leave Iran. He needed a play that could travel without him. Since it first premiered in 2011, it has been widely translated and performed. 

When schools were going remote and the live theater world came to a sudden halt, it felt like the end of the world. But it was also the catalyst for new ways to imagine theater art and arts education. 

When Andre Joseph was one of the few students of color at his private high school in Staten Island, he experienced bullying from other students and witnessed the way that administrators chose to protect the school’s reputation rather than its students. The experience stuck with him. With his short film “Dismissal Time,” he is telling a story based loosely on his own, in the hopes that it will resonate with people who are dealing with similar issues. 

Elaine Del Valle has been telling her own Brooklyn coming-of-age story, “Brownsville Bred” for theater-goers and young readers. Now she’s ready to tell it on the big screen as a feature film.