Art Listings

I have been reorganising processes I use to go through all the artist listing sites I use for exhibition opportunities, jobs, etc. There are so many, including:


artists newsletter
a-n.co.uk


artquest
artquest.org.uk


art council jobs
artsjobs.org.uk 


jobs.ac.uk  - teaching
jobs.ac.uk  


lux - moving image
lux.org.uk/calendar


There are many others, but not all are worth looking through frequently. Even when I have identified possible projects I might like to submit work to, each has its own criteria, its own application process and requirements. I've had to evolve a coherent system of keeping track of submission dates and so on. It really could become a full time job, chasing commissions, writing proposals and budgets. At least over time one evolves statements which can be adapted, even cut and pasted, but without alot of success, feedback is difficult to glean - perhaps one makes the same mistakes over and over.

I've shown my proposals to different people, some outside the artworld. It's really useful to have someone give a different overview, and make them tighter, clearer, more understandable.
 
I remember Ben Cook of Lux told me to think of the panel as ex TV people having no imagination - that way you storyboard and spell it all out - sometimes my proposals tend to leap into abstraction - not a problem for me, but a problem for funders. Now I understand that the first sifting process is to weed out mistakes and omissions - you may as well give them what they ask for, because they have to have some way of narrowing down choices.
I also have a tendency in applications to infer, and assume people will read between the lines.

And then there is the work. Sometimes I have something screamingly suitable. Sometimes there is a piece of work I would like to make or adapt anyway. It's all an investment of time, money, ideas - best to think of them already as commissions. Sometimes I completely avoid all projects which require an application or admin fee.

Occasionally I track projects I didn't get - see who did and what they came up with. Honestly, sometimes it's a mystery.
Above all, the listings and submissions process must be an efficient system to keep up - it can be an eater of time.


24th March 2011