Getting a Visual and Craft Artists Grant

I have applied for and received two Visual and Craft Artist's Grants through NAVA. One was for my solo exhibition, 'Love is a Rose' at Conical Gallery in 2004 and the other was for 'Paradise', a solo show at TCB Gallery in 2006. The grant amounts for a solo show were (and I think still are) $500.

This might not seem like a lot of money. For each of these exhibitions, my work cost over $5,000 to produce. The show at Conical wasn't funded by any other source, but the show at TCB was funded by Arts Victoria (a Creation grant). I saw the $500 Visual and Craft Artists Grant in both cases as directly covering the cost of the gallery hire. For artists exhibiting in artist run spaces, I would venture to say that this fee, that goes toward the hire/running/admin costs of the artist run space, is one of the most difficult financial costs to bear. While it usually seems worthwhile or necessary to fork out my own cash for the making of new work, I think most artists, despite seeing how hard artist run initiatives are working for them, would agree that paying-to-show is both intellectually and financially challenging!

I encourage artists to apply for small grants like this one, because it makes the experience of showing in an artist run space a 'free' experience. After both the Conical show and the TCB show, both those works went on to tour to different places in Australia including the Melbourne Art Fair, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, Brisbane and Sydney, and those works were invited by organisations and the freight/my airfares ended up also being paid for. In effect, by gaining even small grants to show your work in pay-spaces, you are creating a space to be seen, where other potential opportunities may come your way.

Love is a Rose, 2004,
Exhibited at Conical Gallery, Melbourne; Canberra Contemporary Art Space; Melbourne Art Fair
DVD, 1 minute, curtains, candelabras, hedge work: cardboard, knitted wool, hot glue (5m wide x 2m high)



PARADISE, 2006
Exhibited at TCB Art Inc, Melbourne; First Draft Gallery, Sydney; Perth Institute of Contemporary Art; Gertrude Contemporary Art Spaces, Melbourne; and Raw Space, Brisbane
hand knitted, machine knitted and hand rug-hooked wool, clay, fibreglass, plastic, metal, glue.
lifesize, lawn is 320cm x 300cm.

On Desolation Row: the Marketing Grant, part one.

This is a long story for what was, in the scheme of things, a very small grant. But it was very helpful, and I think the story may be more helpful with more details.


Somewhere toward the end of 2005 I was asked by curator and collector Peter Fay to make some kind of larger scale piece or pieces, possibly for a show.
He gave me the words from Dylan's DESOLATION ROW as a kind of starting point.

This photo, taken march last year,
shows the work in its very early stages.

Back then my work, in paper and textiles, was very small scale (often still is) - space to work was very limited. They had to be big, but not heavy, and I needed to be able to disassemble and reassemble the work.



By March I had started the sculptures and knew the general form that they would take. And I knew they were heading for a Melbourne Gallery; Silvershot on Flinders Lane, to be in a group show that Peter was putting together, with Simon Yates, Michelle Hanlin, Simon Scheuerle and Stephen Freiberg, which would open at the end of August.


Silvershot, which operates as a 'gallery-for-hire' were donating the space for Peter's project, and were not taking a commission.

Peter gave me a deadline; to have the sculptures finished a month prior to installing the show, to allow time for labelling, packaging and travelling.


Not only was this a considerable undertaking for me in terms of the scale of the work, and my lack of workspace. It was also a challenge because I had never exhibited a body of work outside Wollongong. At first I had no idea of the best way to get the work there; I had never had to freight anything. And I am rather untravelled myself.


It became evident that it was all going to be a rather expensive exercise, at least on my small income. There main costs would be the freight, the airfare, and the accomodation. Also, I felt I needed to take my partner along to assist me where necessary, and, of course, for a bit of moral support - and he's even poorer than me.


So I had a look at the NAVA small grants that might be applicable to the project; the NAVA Visual and Craft Artists’ Grant and the NAVA Marketing Grant. Actually, at first I did not really think the Marketing Grant would be applicable, but after talking to a nice NAVA person, I found out it would be, at least for some of the associated costs.


It was daunting, I had never applied for a grant and I really don’t like maths, or forms, or any of that stuff. In fact they make me nervous. Just reading the application form was rather off-putting. Very different to making a submission for an exhibition. No pictures!?


But I thought I should have a go, a bit of extra cash would allow me to make the most of the opportunity. And hopefully spare me having to go into debt, or ask the parents.



This photo shows a detail of some of the work in May 2006. Still a long way to go....
By this point the show had a title; IT'S PAINTING SO IT MUST BE GERMAN. That was Peter's brilliant idea, of course.

Part 2 coming soon.

Watch This Space: New Year, New Look

NAVA has been expanding its grant programs over the last year and we've decided to celebrate that by expanding this blog to include updates from for all our grants. It will combine the experience of a range of NAVA grant winners, as well as occasional advice and information from NAVA staff, assessors and even patrons. We're hoping that, as well as being an interesting read from real life grant winners, it will also answer questions you have about applying for grants and make the whole process a lot less daunting.

As of the 14th February, this blog will now be called How I Got a NAVA Grant and will sit on the URL www.navagrants.blogspot.com.

Don't forget to change your bookmarks!

If you've recently won a NAVA grant and think "I'd like to tell everyone about my experience", click the "I Got a NAVA Grant" link on the new blog site and send us an email.

If you've already posted on this blog and haven't received anything from us, click on the "I Got a NAVA Grant" link on the new blog site, send us an email and we'll send you the details.

See you on the new site!