Assignment 2

This assignment was all about writing a proposal for a publication. The course notes uses the word 'publication' in the sense of the output of the student's body of work in whatever form that may take. For me, I will be having an exhibition of the 'Target Practice' work in June 2019.

My proposal needs to include a description of the work proposed and what the goals of the publication are. This was fairly easy to put together after studying the Contextual Studies module. I've described the Target Practice work so many times in different ways and for different formats. The aim of the work (to highlight LGBTQ hidden histories to a wider audience) is also a subject that I have touched upon frequently over the last two years.

A budget needed to be prepared that accounted for all the costs of printing, gallery hire, printing of flyers and brochures, catering for a private view, etc. Also, a daily rate for the photographer needed to be calculated which was something much harder to do as general ongoing costs had to be taken into account; this was for business costs that are to continue for the artist's career, not just for one specific project. Once these ongoing costs had been calculated the proposal became very expensive. I decided to split the budget into two; one for an exhibition only, without my daily rate costs and was much more realistic; a second budget covered the cost from the two year development and research of the project right through shooting and final exhibition, including my daily rate. This was to show that if I was to write a proposal for an organisation like the National Arts Council I would be aware of the realistic budget costs from start to finish.

Finally I had to submit a timeline of my project plan for the exhibition showing all the tasks and dates by which the project has to be completed. Some of these tasks I've already completed and over the next few weeks and months I'm sure that list will grow much longer.

Edit:

My feedback with Clive has taken place and we discussed elements of my project plan and he was impressed with how organised I am. I do have a background in I.T. project planning so have skills in this area that I can put to good use. I've been ill for a number of weeks so it will be catch up time in terms of the project plan but everything is still moving along as planned.

  

Organising and tracking my exhibition workflow

In order to keep track of my prep for the exhibition I'm using a piece of project planning software called Trello. It is a free, web-based, product with options to connect via desktops and mobile apps. It was really easy to create a number of task-based 'To Do' lists and the software also has a calendar function to slot the tasks into a project planing timeline. The software has add-ons (such as the calendar function) which are part of a monthly subscription but one free add-on can be selected and utilised. There is a more advanced version that requires a monthly subscription for the full package but the free version will be more than enough for my needs.

Now that I have a number of tasks created I feel that I will more easily be able to track my progress and keep on top of the planning.

Regional Development Agencies

Alongside the National Arts Councils there are also Regional Development Agencies that offer support to aspiring photographer artists. For additional funding the Photographer's Gallery and Photoworks (Brighton) are Lens-based Regional Development Agencies for the Arts in England.

The Photographer's Gallery

https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/about-us/awards-and-partnerships

Looking at the Photographer's Gallery website they have an 'awards and partnership' section that details three pathways that could be utilized by an aspiring photographer. One of these is the 'Deutsche Borse Photography Foundation Prize' that we are all familiar with. As a soon to be graduate photographer I don't feel it appropriate to be applying for my work to be exhibited in such a prestigious exhibition at this time. I'm not sure an artist can even apply, I think the artists are selected by a panel each year from well known practitioners. I've seen some amazing work exhibited at the annual prize by some amazingly talented photographers. I feel a small and personal exhibition that I can learn and grow from is the best approach at this stage.

The other application option with the Photographer's Gallery is to approach for funding for a photobook. The 'Bar Tur Photobook Award' publishes a photobook chosen from a number of applicants and is open to all that are studying at or just finished their photography degree studies. My 'Target Practice' body of work has been made with an exhibition mind so this approach would be problematic for the following reasons: There are only eleven images. A photobook format does not seem appropriate for such a small number and also, I certainly did not conceive the work with this format in mind. I could make more work but I would need a lot more time to achieve this. I think that attempting to shoehorn work made for a specific format into another is not the best way to approach my project.

The third option offered by TPG appears to be a mentorship programme. This option is more geared towards personal development rather than achieving a specific outcome towards a publication.

Looking at the options presented it seems a bit negative to dismiss them all. But at this stage of the course I think it is important to assess all the funding options for my exhibition and carefully choose the most appropriate pathway for me. This will involve analysing all the available resources and narrowing down and accessing the ones that will be most beneficial to where I am at this stage of my photography career. The process is very useful as I am developing an overview of how the grants and funding system works in this country and where I sit as a fledgling photographer artist within it.

Photoworks (Brighton)

https://photoworks.org.uk/jerwoodphotoworks-awards-2/

Photoworks can provide financial and mentorship assistance in the form of the Photoworks /Jerwood Awards. This substantial project grant may be awarded to any photographer artist that is within ten years of establishing their practice. The financial award is over ten thousand pounds and a mentorship programme and touring exhibition are also included in the package. There are no entry qualifications or age limit although current full and part-time graduates are excluded from entering.

This award appears to be aimed at graduates in photography that want to establish their art practice as well as those that did not follow the formal academic art route. In any case I am still an undergraduate at this point so I will file this information for future reference.

Applying for an Arts Council England Grant

Reading through the learning notes of section two of my course I realised I need to start planning a timeline of all the tasks that need to be actioned for my exhibition this year. The first task was to create a profile on the Arts Council England website for National Lottery funding. The profile takes a number of days to be validated before I can begin to fill in my application as an individual visual arts based practitioner. The project can fund eligible projects of between £1,000 - £15,000 with a 10% stake coming from outside the grant system.

There is nothing to lose in applying and this kind of interaction with the real-life system of grants and funding for the arts is what section two of the SYP course module is focused on.

While I wait for my profile validation I will look at the application process in more detail and continue with my study of SYP part two.