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lovely photo from diane
Are all of the front desk assistants of the National Endowment for the Arts pregnant?
Some things you simply cannot avoid wondering about if you happen to be outnumbered by young women, hands cradling their swollen bellies, waddling around the hallowed halls of the NEA. ”It is a very busy time. Everyone is going from one meeting to another,” murmured Vanessa, a slender woman – not pregnant – who greeted us at the offices for local arts agencies where we were scheduled for a meeting.
This is our yearly pilgrimage to Mecca, a time for me to personally touch base with the folks who shepherd our grant requests through the labrynth of their panel process and with whom I have become good friends with over the years. I like the train ride down to DC, wandering wide eyed through Union Station and stopping to say a quick hello to everyone before they duck into yet another meeting.
the lovely ladies working for local arts agencies
“We love when people come to see us, especially now that our travel budgets have been cut. I wish more people did,” said one director to me who I caught grabbing a quick lunch at the Indian take out place. I have to admit I don’t understand why more nonprofits don’t make it a priority to visit funders. Every time I sit down with the directors, it is a chance for me to let them know what we are doing, what we intend to apply for and very often I will gain a valuable insight or piece of advice that will make our proposal rock. If you want to be a successful grantwriter, consider this: there is an art to writing for money.
This time, the big thing is innovation and transformation. They want something that presents new learning or insights. Something replicable and measurable.
“What does that look like to you? ” I asked. ”Can you give me an example?”
Answer the Question, Goddamnit!
The director smiled. ”We talk about that a lot The answer to your question is that we will know it when we see it.”
This is an answer?
They don’t know what a successful innovative and transformative project is. And if they don’t know that, they cannot describe it. Or measure it.
LIke many other funding opportunities out there, the NEA wants to see their dollar make an important impact. Something that changes and transforms lives. A model that can be replicated in other places. And it falls to the artists and creative thinkers to visualize a project that can do all that and, most of all, deliver such an experience that allows the vision of the funders to bundle up the act and set up shop in another place.
It is a competitive category. We need to leave no doubt among the grant panelists that yes, we are worthy of funding. Why? Because we transform lives.
How do we do this?
By creating a picture of the success we intend to create and a space for a funder to feel part of something that is moving towards real and tangible goals with benchmarks that can feed back into the process.
Do They Know?
Anyone who tells you “they will know it when they see it” has no idea what “it” is, which actually is a very good thing. It is an admission of not knowing what they want to achieve, only knowing why. This is a very good thing. It tells me funders are willing to be outcomes focused and open to anything as long as it is new in philosophy and that it changes something. To make art make a difference.
What You Should Know
For us, transformation has to be demonstrated by what an artist does with the skills, learnings and confidence gained by being part of what Queens Council on the Arts provides. It is no longer and, in my book, never was enough to describe success as well attended events or satisfied customers. How do I know this and why do I believe so strongly in this comes from simply watching the body language, especially the eyes, of the directors. Their eyes did not light up when we talked about how happy the artists were to be part of the workshops, and to learn new skills. We will have to create a vivid image of success that we will set as our goal which will be the artist as a confident, engaged, creative professional whose art can change the world. Our yardstick will be the gradual changes their art and their actions cause in the world.
Here’s an excerpt from Marion Conway’s summary of the 2013 Annual Letter by Bill Gates:
In the last year Beth Kanter has been talking about the importance of measurement to the networked nonprofit. Now Bill Gates opens his 2013 Annual letter talking about it with a quote from William Rosen’s “The Most Powerful Idea in the World.” Bill writes: “Without feedback from precise measurement, Rosen writes, invention is “doomed to be rare and erratic.” With it, invention becomes “commonplace.”……..But in the past year I have been struck again and again by how important measurement is to improving the human condition. You can achieve amazing progress if you set a clear goal and find a measure that will drive progress toward that goal-in a feedback loop similar to the one Rosen describes. This may seem pretty basic, but it is amazing to me how often it is not done and how hard it is to get right.
There, I said it. And I believe it.
What does success look like, move like, sound like for what you do?
This way of thinking could be catching. Unlike pregnancy, thank God.
Check out Getting to Wow! to feel good, do good and look good
See what’s going on at Nonprofit Knitwear for all things nonprofit and knit
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Hoong Yee
photo by Wayne Large
So you’ve written your monthly post, clicked the Publish button, yawned, muttered, “Thank God that’s out of the way.” and now you’re thinking about lunch.
Chances are, the lack of comments and interest to your post are not disturbing you as you scan the take out menus.
If you are a creative person working in a creative organization such as Queens Council on the Arts, high-quality content on our blog is our most potent form of marketing.
You may be writing about how to get a grant to attract more artists to the Queens Arts Fund. You may be putting out a call for artists for an upcoming show. You may be promoting a workshop series for emerging writers.
Did you know that at the same time, your post can serve as an incredibly persuasive point for people to do something further? Blog posts can do double duty as landing pages for Google Ads. They can be places where people can sign up for a newsletter, RSVP for a workshop, donate, answer a survey, join a discussion….
And become active and engaged members of our community.
Valuable!
When you publish content, you want your reader to do something.
You want the work you put into your content to get your reader to take a specific action.
There’s a “secret” to making this work better … a secret that great copywriters have been using for more than a century.
Let’s talk about highly effective and compelling content
To create great content — the kind that gets shared, that attracts more readers, and gets people to take action — you need to do three things.
1. You need to write something incredibly useful.
2. You need to write something that’s easy to understand and easy to digest.
3. You need to make specific calls to actions for your readers.
Now, a couple of copywriting hints:
1. How are your headlines?
Are you uncovering the pain points of your potential customers?
Challenges of Working in the Arts vs. Tired of Being a Starving Artist?
2. Are you zoning in on the benefits of what you have to offer or are you still blithering on about features?
QCA Offers Professional Development Workshops vs. Eight Surefire Ways to Sell Your Artwork
3. Do you use the language of your audience?
No jargon. Say things in a simple, clear and direct voice.
Instead of “building capacity”, say “grow a business”.
4. Make your call to actions easy to follow.
Sign up here for immediate access to the coolest events in Queens.
In a nutshell, here’s the “secret” for content that works for readers and furthers audience building goals:
Create great, useful content that is enjoyable to consume, and that lets the reader know exactly what to do next.
Here’s a quick punch list for QCA power posts:
- Write a dynamic headline
- Always include an image or photo
- Write about things that are useful to the reader
- Include a link or two back to an older post on the QCA website or to featured artist or student
- End with a clear call to action
Got your own power blogging secrets? Link them up for us in the comments!
Hoong Yee, Richard, Janet
&
Barry
Blogging for a better world
At this year’s conference, I was joined by two other bloggers to capture in words the spirit and essence of this universe we call grantmakers in the arts – Richard Kessler and Barry Hessenius.
What is art about, really?
If you have ever heard Dr. Manuel Pastor speak, you would know what he would say.
Dr Manuel Pastor writes and speaks frequently on issues of demographic change, economic inequality and community empowerment. At his keynote speech at the Grantmakers in the Arts 2011 Conference, he said many things I thought were cool:
On December 15, 199, we became a majority/minority state.
Collaboration and conflict go together.
Collaboration is principled conflict.
Do you know the difference between chess and jigsaw puzzles?
Chess Jigsaw puzzles
2 colors many colors
some pieces are more powerful than others every piece is important
you gain by knocking a piece out you gain by putting pieces together
the goal is to win the goal is to complete
As a nation we play way too much chess
Art is making things of beauty with friends
Frances Phillips and her Beowulf socks
Frances Phillips is a quietly impressive force with a knitted sock patterned with the opening lines of Beowulf beginning with, “Hwaet…” wrapped around two slender needles tucked away in her pocketbook.
Hwaet?
“I’ll send you the instructions, you’ll love it.” Frances clearly loves literature and knitting to depths beyond me and the rest of the GIA Knitting Circle. ”Just remember to weave in your strands when changing colors mid row.”
Believe it or not, that makes sense to me. Later on during the conference, Tommer asked me if I had lost a ball of green yarn. At the moment I am knitting something in a silver cotton so no, the yarn did not belong to me.
“Hmmm, I wonder if Frances is using green in her Beowulf socks. Lynn Stern might be, she is working on a pair of multicolored gloves. Let me put the word out for you.” In my opinion, the fact that I know this stuff is actually impressive as an example of niche knowledge, thank you very much.
I turned to Frances, smiled bravely thinking to myself, “Wonderful! Just in time for holiday knitting.”
We were serenaded at the plenary brunch by Eugene Rodriguez, Linda Ronstadt, David Hidalgo and Los Cenzontles.
Throw me the lemon
Throw me the lime
Throw me the key
To your heart.
You are my dear
You are my love
You are my dove
That sings at sunrise.
Here’s something Linda Ronstadt said at the closing of the conference:
Mexican audiences know just when to howl and they know when to be quiet.
Hwaet everybody!
About the Author: Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer writes about how to be a nimble nonprofit, make life creative and make a difference at www.hoongyee.com.
She is also the Executive Director of the Queens Council on the Arts. Hoong Yee can be found surfing in the Rockaways whenever there are waves.
Do you want to know the fears, visions of perfect worlds and world changing advice of your peers and keynote speakers?
I have a special bonus post for you of interviews I conducted with people during the conference. Just leave me a comment with your email or better still, subscribe at www.hoongyee.com and get my interview post and new style notes for people who change the world delivered to your inbox.
Mason Bates
What do you think of when you hear the word – symphony?
I am sure these are a few that may come to mind:
Classical
Full
Concert
Beethoven
Crowd management
What?
Try hiding your surprise without choking on an artichoke heart in a ballroom filled with hundreds of Grantmakers with arched eyebrows.
Yet, crowd management shared space with other words such as
acoustic
perfect
string quartet
- and of course, it took the American composer of symphonic music, Mason Bates, to make musical sense of it all. And it took the San Francisco based Del Sol String Quartet to bring everything to life.
We lucky Grantmakers were serenaded by Del Sol who performed Mason’s ”Bagatelles”, a piece for strings and electronica.
“The string quartet,” Mason stepped up to the podium wearing a black leather jacket and a boyish smile. ”is a perfect acoustic creation.”
I love that.
Mason spoke about the challenge of putting a string quartet in new spaces. The difficulties in acoustics, outreach, managing audience engagement and expectations. And at the same time, there is the intriguing possibilities in creating a “hybrid musical event” such as his Mercury Sol.
Picture this, or rather, listen to this:
Consider a traditional musical group, such as the Chicago Symphony or the San Francisco Symphony, who work on artistic programs and invest in large marketing campaigns to prepare audiences for what they are going to hear and shape their expectations.
Now consider a newer musical group such as Mercury Sol, who work with stagecraft, lighting and technology to create immersive experiences for audiences and project program notes and somehow make the artist part of the audience. The sounds of a string quartet playing slowly drifts into a new space, gradually there is a change in perception, a light projection draws everyone to a point of focus.
There you have it. Crowd Management in the key of C.
About the Author: Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer writes about how to be a nimble nonprofit, make life creative and make a difference at www.hoongyee.com.
She is also the Executive Director of the Queens Council on the Arts. Hoong Yee can be found surfing in the Rockaways whenever there are waves.
Do you want to know the fears, visions of perfect worlds and world changing advice of your peers and keynote speakers?
I have a special bonus post for you of interviews I conducted with people during the conference. Just leave me a comment with your email or better still, subscribe at www.hoongyee.com and get my interview post and new style notes for people who change the world delivered to your inbox.
Alyce Myatt
They say the fastest growing population of video game players are women over 60.
“Oh my God I’ll never be get there!” a woman in the back of the room was clearly overwhelmed by the though of disappointing her demographic.
“Well, that’s because you aren’t 60 yet,” Marian Godfrey, one of the organizers of “Don’t Get Pwnd! A Video -Gaming Salon For Grantmakers” held at the Grantmakers In The Arts 2011 Conference, smiled soothingly as we all collegially chuckled, relieved that we all had a little more time to spend with our Playstations. ”We’ll throw you a party in an arcade.
“My goal, as a game designer, is to create a mind expanding experience for people with rich inner lives.”
Such a game would not be a time eating/time filling activity. It would include:
- A system of rules
- Simulation
- A tiny toy version of our universe
- What if?
- A recreated new history of the world
Interesting objective for someone who gained financial success from Braid, his video game about manipulating time. Jonathan Blow, an independent video game designer, describes it as an engaged exploration of ethics and consequences.
Jonathan Blow
Even more interesting.
Jon began making small independent art games around 1996, riding the video wave. Several years ago, he founded the Indie Fund, a source of funding with the goals of supporting people who want to make art games and to move the field forward. This fund is intentional user friendly, awarding grant amounts ranging from 10k to 200k with an open submission process and a simple application asking for:
A short description of the game describing what the game is and how you interact with it
A YouTube video of a playable prototype
He looks for skill in making games and something he calls the “quality standard gene” which he says is, “very important and rare to find.”
Of five funded projects, two came from the open process. The rest were people he knew from the field.
There is a low acceptance rate, 1% to a third of 1%.
What is a video game?
Definition: mainstream video games are screen visuals that react with viewers’ input. In coin-op games, a player receives a fun experience in exchange for coins. A skinner box that runs slot machines gives rewards in unknown amounts at unknown times to a player which sets off triggers that can become addictive. Is this ethically bankrupt?
Definitely intriguing: the action that happens between frames of a comic book
Alyce Myatt, director, Media Arts, NEA, shook her head and said with a sigh, “The cycle is the same. Independent films experienced a similar shift.”
The NEA now funds:
- games
- mobile apps
- satellite delivered content
- electronic art delivery
About 360 proposals were received with requests ranging from 15k to 200k. ”The process got people thinking” said Alyce. She was delighted to see applications come from across disciplines demonstrating how media is embedded in artmaking and in growing audiences.
“Philanthropic dollars are the only risk capital in this country.”
There are several challenges:
- Production and development – attending game development conferences are expensive, admission ranging between 2k to 4k. Alyce stressed how important it is for grantmakers to be at these gatherings. Is there funding for travel to conferences such as SXSW and Indie K?
- Distribution – a marketing plan takes time and intense effort. A game faces the challenge of bottlenecks when trying to get to the market. Alyce suggested exploring the possibility of getting a graduate student with marketing skills. Is there funding for marketing fellowships?
- Open video movement – this helps to get games out to larger audiences. Grantmakers should be funding these initiatives.
Questions from the bewildered:
How deeply can we understand the artistic process and value of making games when making funding decisions? How can we learn from this?
Jon:
Play games. Don’t get hung up in the “tooliness” of the tools. It is better to allow someone to explore, broaden an experience, knowledge, context and be immersed in it.
Alyce:
We need an independent nonprofit game community and public media for the stability and the benefit of society.
Ron:
Think of games as novels that ask big questions of humanity and the way we see each other
About the Author: Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer writes about how to be a nimble nonprofit, make life creative and make a difference at www.hoongyee.com.
She is also the Executive Director of the Queens Council on the Arts. Hoong Yee can be found surfing in the Rockaways whenever there are waves.
Do you want to know the fears, visions of perfect worlds and world changing advice of your peers and keynote speakers?
I have a special bonus post for you of interviews I conducted with people during the conference. Just leave me a comment with your email or better still, subscribe at www.hoongyee.com and get my interview post and new style notes for people who change the world delivered to your inbox.
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