Business Accelerator Grant for Visual Artists

The Clark Hulings Fund (CHF) offers direct financial assistance and business support to professional visual artists. CHF awards two Business Accelerator Grants per year, designed to help artists cover the costs of activities or services related to specific projects that have the potential to drive their careers forward and grow their art businesses. Professional visual artists are invited to apply for grants of up to $5,000 each to support the business side of their artistic enterprises. Five finalists will also receive business and promotional support. Applicants must detail exactly how the grant would help them undertake, improve, or expand a specific project.

Grant recipients and finalists will be featured on the CHF podcast and in PR outreach efforts, and will interview art-world leaders for the podcast. They will receive free 12-month subscriptions to ArtWorkArchive.com, a cloud-based inventory and collection-tracking system. Two works by each grant recipient and finalist will be featured in the CHF 2015 online collection, accessible to collectors and supporters of the fund.

Supported activities include mounting or casting pieces for an exhibition, purchasing art supplies, marketing and promotional activities, and transportation of the artist and/or artwork. Unsupported activities include commissioning fees, institutional overhead expenses, general administrative or living expenses, competition application fees, tuition, artistic residency expenses, and professional development fees. The fund does not support performance, literary, or commercial work.

Applicants must be professional painters, artists working on paper, and/or sculptors who employ traditional media (not including photography, film, or video), have had their work published and/or exhibited professionally, are pursuing specific opportunities for which CHF support would make a substantive difference, are United States citizens or permanent residents, and have not previously been awarded a grant from CHF. Applications are accepted from September 1 through October 4, 2015. Two grant recipients and five finalists will be announced in November 2015. Funds awarded are for use between January 1 and December 31, 2016. The application fee is $30. Applicants must submit an itemized budget, resume/CV, up to ten images of work, and optional supporting materials. Grant recipients and finalists must consent to be interviewed on the podcast, conduct an interview with an art-world leader, and supply images for promotional materials.