To determine whether or not an open call opportunity will be worth your time and money to apply, consider the questions below. Each artist may have different priorities, so these are unanswered prompts to help artists assess for themselves the value of each opportunity in terms of their own goals and practice before starting the application.
By open call, I am referring to opportunities such as juried and solo shows, grants, publications, artist residencies, art fairs, etc. that solicit artists to submit their work for consideration.
These questions may be used to help determine whether or not you accept an invitation to participate in other opportunities as well.
Higher prestige = more competitive, generally speaking. This means lesser known opportunities might be more attainable especially for emerging artists.
(Tip: look at the mission statement and past recipients to get an understanding of the type of work they have historically supported)
Will I be in the context of artists whose work I respect?
Is the space professional and/or visually desirable?
Are the title and theme something that I want to participate in and list on my CV?
Will I be able to get professional documentation for my website/social media?
Determine the cost/befit ratio:
Will the reward pay off for the time and money the process requires?
Tiered systems are often predatory and by nature do not reflect a fair jury process.
% taken on sales, shipping costs, or other hidden participation fees
If I am not selected, are either of these reasons enough to apply?
Can you leverage this application process as an opportunity?
One last thought:
Regarding the likelihood of being selected: If an open call has no application fee, a large monetary award or other highly desirable outcome, and an easy application process, there will probably be a huge applicant pool. Lesser known, specialized, and smaller opportunities, and ones with more extensive applications, less benefits and application fees tend to have smaller applicant pools.
So, mathematically speaking, the chances of being selected are greater in these smaller applicant pools.
I mention this to point out that there are merits to considering both small and large, prestigious and lesser known opportunities.
Did you know:
The Artist’s Office offers a subscription for artist opportunity deadlines including juried and solo shows, publications, residencies, grants and more. Subscribers receive notifications about upcoming deadlines that are vetted and are selected based on each artists interests and priorities.
This eliminates the need to hunt down opportunities that may or may not be a good fit, or a valuable opportunity.
If you’d like to support the making of more content like this, I am accepting donations via Venmo:
@Virginia-Broersma
Application Stats:
Number of Applicants* for a variety of opportunities:
GRANTS:
Creative Capital:
3,700 Applicants in 2024; 50 Recipients
Awards up to $50,000 plus $50,000 in advisory services (National)
Guggenheim Fellowship:
2,500 Applicants in 2022; 171 Recipients
Amount Varies (National. Scientists, writers, scholars, and artists eligible. )
Lowe Craft Prize:
3,900 submissions from over 124 countries; 1 Prize Winner receives 50,000 euros (international prize)
Sustainable Arts Foundation
1,800 applicants in 2020; 21 Grants
$5,000 grants for parent artists
harpo foundation:
2,300 applicants in 2014
<1,300 applicants in 2020
1,600 applicants in 2022
Grants up to $10,000, average grant is $6,000 (National)
CCF Fellowship:
400 Applicants in 2023
500 Applicants in 2022; 12 Grants of $40,000
350 applicants in 2018; 18 Grants of $25,000
(Los Angeles only)
Marjorie Strider Foundation:
565 applicants in 2022; 2 Grants
$5,000 Artist Grant (National)
Prospect Art - New Work
102 applicants in 2023, 7 Grants
$2,500 Project Grant (Los Angeles only)
Ellis Beauregard Foundation:
600 applicants in 2023
400 applicants in 2022; 1 Grant
$50,000 Grants (National)
Davyd Whaley Foundation:
230 applicants in 2018
$5,000 Artist Grant (Los Angeles and surrounding areas only)
Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant:
Averages 95 applicants each month, average grant is $1,600 (National)
Artistgrant.org:
averages 75 applicants each quarter
$500 Grant (National)
Jackson’s Painting Prize:
15,345 Artwork Submissions in 2024; 7 recipients
9,000+ Submissions in 2022
£5000 (1) & £1000 (6) prizes (International)
RESIDENCIES:
Skowhegan Summer Residency:
2,500 applicants in 2018
Djerassi Artist Residency:
1,000 applicants in 2018
Loghaven Residency
900 applicants in 2021
Marble House Residency
740 applicants in 2021
Art Omi
757 applicants in 2020
MoCA Tucson Artist in Residence program:
285 applicants in 2019