cadre art

$10 arts grant

current balance: $200
next grant deadline: TBA
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cadreartgrant@yahoo.com
mailing address:
p.o. box 2636
san francisco, ca 94126
(This address is for donations only—we cannot accept applications for the grants via standard mail.)

past grantees:

Cycle 1

Jessamyn Lovell
Ifetayo Abdus-Salam
Collaborator's Guide
Jessica Ingram
Andy Fraser
Nora Barrows-Friedman

Cycle 2

Ginelle Hustrulid & Erica Freyberger
Eric Gottesman
Kelli Connell
Minette Mangahas & Ricardo Richie
Kirstyn Russell

advisory board:

Catherine Wagner : artist, professor
Therese Mulligan : historian, writer, curator, professor
Zoe Strauss : photographer, writer, curator
Charles Guice : writer, photography dealer
Bridget Cooks : historian, writer, curator
Adrienne Hurley : professor

We've all been there: asked to be in a show but can't afford the fabrication, framing or shipping; are in a show but there's no money for a catalog or other permanent documentation so our work goes up, comes down, and disappears in a month—art production costs money! So we got to thinking: what if we solicited $10 donations to give grants to artists? After all, only 100 $10 donations would result in a $1000 grant—that's less than a dollar per month (but you can give as much and as often as you like)!

Carla's grandfather, an extremely frugal man who saved everything, would pick up every penny on the street and he'd say, 'after all, Wrigley became a millionaire selling 1¢ sticks of gum.' Through direct e-mailing, websites, and word-of-mouth we believe we can collect enough pennies in $10 donations to make a difference—who needs the spoils of corporate robber-barons to support the arts?! We have faith and after all, we hail from great state of California, the 7th largest economy in the world and ranked 50^th in per capita arts funding (less than 3¢ annually). While people of means can give as much as they like (and we encourage them!), we believe this will ultimately be sustained through small donations that most of us can afford to make year after year.

Our goal is to make positive, sustainable change in the art world using different models of support.*

Here's how it works:

We accept any and all donations year round, deposit them into a dedicated account, and subtract no administrative costs.** All money that is donated will be given as grants to artists, up to $9,999 per grant.

donate:

The suggested minimum donation is $10. If you make the minimum donation, you're eligible to apply and/or eligible to help select the grant recipient(s) in that calendar year. If you would like to serve on the selection committee, you must indicate this with your donation along with an e-mail address (all applications will be submitted and reviewed electronically to eliminate administrative costs).

methods of payment accepted:

money orders/cashiers' checks (please make all checks payable to Carla Williams or Deirdre Visser; donations can be sent to the address at left)

checks***

cash

PayPal one-time donation: automatic monthly donation:

apply:

With a $10 annual donation, any artist may apply for a grant once within that calendar year (2 grant cycles per year). If you donate more than $10, we love you, but that doesn't make you eligible to apply more than once per year.

All applications must be sent to cadreartgrant@yahoo.com and must include:

A brief artist's statement (no c.v.'s, please!) & description of what you plan to do with the grant (300-500 words total)

Your estimated need for your particular project (you can ask for any amount up to the current total collected for the grant)

A URL for a blog or website containing your work**** All images must be submitted in this format (no attachments will be accepted) to eliminate the administrative costs of postage and paperwork and submission costs for the artist (no more slides!). Applications must include at least 5 but no more than 20 examples of work. All applicant URLs will be posted on this site for viewing by donors and the selection committee.

select:

Each Selection Committee will consist of:

cadre (Carla Williams and Deirdre Visser)

2 randomly selected advisory board members

2 randomly selected donors *****

winners:

We ask all winners to let us know what you did with the grant by providing some documentation of the work that we can post on the web so that donors can know and see what their money has gone to support! This can include text, images, etc.

* We are also inspired by direct, simple giving projects like 100 Friends and Modest Needs.

Truthfully, we were also inspired by an episode of The Wire in which the cops calculate exactly how much money is being made from the penny-ante drug sales in the projects, and they conclude it to be something like $25 million per month. Just goes to show how much disposable income is actually in a community that apparently has few economic resources. Sure, it's fiction, but it's gritty, realistic fiction. It's like art as crack!

** Please note that if you make your donation via Paypal they deduct $.059 for a $10 donation, $.088 for a $20 donation, etc.

*** We're conflicted about this but I do understand the ease of it and we want easy donations! We'll just have to monitor those well-intentioned check bouncers. $10 or $25 fees will significantly cut into the grant funds.

Also, the reason the checks are to be made out to one of us is that we have opted not to seek 501(c)(3) non-profit status at this time. For now, we wanted to keep it as simple as possible and to operate rather like a clearing house for donations.

**** If you don't already have a website or blog, you can set up a free blog at blogger.com (if you're a PC user), a not-free blog at typepad.com (if you're a Mac user), a free blog at WordPress.org (don't know if it favors PC or Mac), or you can even simply set up a free photo page at flickr.com. We're sure there are other options out there—look around!

***** You cannot be both an applicant and on the selection committee in the same year (2 grant cycles per year)

FAQs

1. What is cadre?

cadre is simply Carla Williams and Deir dre Visser's ongoing collaborative project which encompasses everything from curatorial collaboration to art projects to the cadre art grant. We needed a name that incorporated us both, obviously, and liked the definition of cadre and thought it appropriate for what we'd like to achieve vis à vis the art world. And Deirla just made no sense.

2. When do you accept donations?

We accept donations year-round! Though there is a deadline to apply for the grant, there is no deadline for making a donation.

3. Can I be automatically set up to make a monthly donation?

Yes! Click here to sign up for an automatic $10 per month payment plan.

4. Are donations tax deductible?

Not at this time. The reason checks are to be made out to one of us is that we have opted not to seek 501(c)(3) non-profit status at this time. It's time-consuming and involved, and for now, we wanted to keep it as simple as possible and to operate like a clearing house for donations—money in, money out. The only deductions being taken are fees for Paypal donations.

5. What kinds of art does the grant support?

This is a visual arts grant—works in all media are eligible. While we don't support traditional performing arts projects, we do support performance artists. You can always E-mail us if you have any questions.

6. Is this a pyramid scheme?

This one surprises us—though this question or a variant comes up often enough we have to address it. No, this isn't a pyramid scheme; we outline above very clearly how we solicit money and how we give it away, and we certainly aren't promising or even suggesting a payday for everyone who donates. Folks are naturally suspicious, it seems, but what we're really finding is they also don't like to use the click-through links from E-mails. Those people, I'm afraid, we cannot help—we can't re-explain everything in every E-mail campaign. Then no one would read it.

7. Is this grant just for California artists?

No—anyone who donates is eligible to apply.