Inspiration Grants

Inspiration Grants from the ArtsKC Fund are an investment in human capital, providing direct support to individual artists and arts professionals for projects and activities that have the potential to advance their careers and build their capacity for future work.

Applications for Inspiration Grants from the 2012 ArtsKC Fund will be reviewed and approved three times over the course of the year, so there are opportunities to apply every four months. Applications should be for projects and activities occurring between the dates of July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013.  

Applying for an Inspiration Grant is a two step process:

1. Submit a letter of inquiry.  Letters of inquiry may be submitted at any time and will be reviewed at the next deadline. 
A response to the letter of inquiry will notify the applicant if the concept is approved to proceed to the second step of the application process.

2. Submit a full proposal with additional details and documentation about the request as directed by the Arts Council. 
Full proposals are considered next by the review committee, and the recommendations of the review committee are subject to final approval by the Arts Council Board of Directors.

All Inspiration Grant recipients must submit a final report in order to receive the full grant. Final reports are due after the funded project is completed and by June 15, 2012 for funds granted in 2011 and by June 15, 2013 for funds granted in 2012.


Documents

How to submit an application for an Inspiration Grant in 2012
Guidelines to submit an Inspiration Grant Final Report

 

Dates and Deadlines

ROUND 1:
        Letters of inquiry received by March 1
        Full proposals due by March 26
        Funding decisions by April 20

ROUND 2:

        Letters of inquiry received by July 2
        Full proposals due by July 26
        Funding decisions by August 24

ROUND 3:

        Letters of inquiry received by November 1
        Full proposals due by November 26
        Funding decisions by December 21

FINAL REPORTS:
        Due after the funded project is completed and by June 15, 2012

2011 Round 3 Recipients:

Griffen Alexander: ($1,000)                                                                  
Musician Griffen Alexander released his second solo album, “The Sound & The Sea”, in August 2011 and will receive an Inspiration grant to produce a professional music video for one of its songs, “Mississippi Water.”  The music video will be used as a promotional tool to help him book performances through the National Association for Campus Activities conferences.  

Trey Bryan: ($1,000)                                                     
For the past year, visual artist Trey Bryan has spent time sketching in iconic Kansas City locations such as the Hotel Phillips, the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts and the Lyric Opera, capturing their raw charm in images and literary compositions. The Inspiration Grant will assist him in publishing the sketches into a printed book.

 

Jason Dixon: ($916)
Visual works captured through a webcam will be featured in “Dear Diary,” the initial solo exhibition of interdisciplinary artist Jason Dixon at City Ice Arts Center in March of 2012.  Inspiration funds will support the printing and framing of the images to professional and archival standards, to facilitate touring of the works in the future.                                                                        

Ari Fish: ($500)
“High Seas, Low Planes” is an ambitious interactive multi-media installation planned for La Esquina by fiber and performance artist Ari Fish. Hardware and equipment for mobile viewing platforms to create a multi-sensory experience for the audience will be paid for with the Inspiration funding.     

Greg Haynes: ($1,500)
Professional musician and educator Greg Haynes will travel to Trinidad and Tobago for six weeks for fieldwork performances on the pan, a percussion instrument. This research will provide necessary experimental knowledge, artistic connections and cultural context to allow him to draw upon an authentic and culturally-relevant pan artistry experience.

                                                           

Julie Malen: ($1,000)
With her grant, ceramicist Julie Malen will attend a studio residency at the prestigious Vermont Studio Center in March of 2012, where she plans to continue to explore themes of consumerism and modern behavior as she creates work for future installations. The residency will help her move forward in her professional career by giving her the experience of working with several artists in multiple disciplines.   

Deborah Riley: ($850)

Visual artist Deborah Riley will continue her research into printing images directly onto photosensitive polymer printing plates.  The results, which so far have seemed promising, will be shared with other artists through workshops and classes and could potentially eliminate some of the expensive equipment costs associated with this kind of artwork.

Nihan Yesil: ($500) 

Multi-media artist, musician and dancer Nihan Yesil’s project, “Umbratorium,” is based on the use of overhead projectors and shadow theatre techniques with unconventional materials and substances.  The Inspiration grant will help purchase a transparency printer as well as a new overhead projector, which will replace an older one that is unreliable and hard to maintain and repair.

 

 

 

2011 Round 2 Recipients:

Laura Berman, $1,250      
Printmaker Laura Berman has planned two artist residencies in Europe this fall, one in Belgium and one in Barcelona; funding from ArtsKC will support expenses associated with the residency in Spain, which will extend the impact of this trip and help fund a subsequent exhibition in Kansas City later this year.

 

Enrique Chi, $500 
Musician and songwriter Enrique Chi requests support for a short film spotlighting his band Making Movies, to include performances, backstage scenes, interviews and a music video, with segments of the film to be shown on You Tube and other internet music/film sites.

Renee Laferriere Cinderhouse, $1,000
Funding for this request will help ceramicist Renee Laferriere Cinderhouse develop a new body of works for a major, multi-disciplinary installation exhibition in the fall of 2012 at La Esquina.  This request is a follow-up to her earlier, successful application for Inspiration funds which she had to decline, when other funding for an international residency was not forthcoming.    

Ryan Fletcher, $1,000
Ceramicist Ryan Fletcher has been invited to the 35th Annual International Ceramics Symposium in Wroclaw, Poland and seeks support for travel expenses in order to take advantage of this opportunity to work with established international masters in his field.

Richard Fritz, $500
Visual artist and designer Richard Fritz proposes the creation of 10 unique custom-made books featuring handmade covers and traditional hand press printed pages on the inside, to be featured in an exhibition that also documents the creative process and authentic craftsmanship of the project. 

Diana Heise, $1,250
Recently awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study and work in Mauritius, Africa, video and installation artist Diana Heise requests funding to assist with the purchase of equipment and supplies needed for a non-fiction video project to be created while she is traveling on sabbatical from the Kansas City Art Institute next spring.    

Nicholas Naughton, $700
Printmaker and visual artist Nicholas Naughton needs support to assist with start-up expenses for La Cucuracha Press, a community fine art print studio which will help fill the void left by the loss of the INKubator Press at the recently-closed Arts Incubator.   

 

2011 Round 1 Recipients:

 

Deanna Dikeman, $1,250
ArtsKC funding will support some of the expenses for photographer Deanna Dikeman to attend the prestigious Art Omi Artists Residency program for three weeks this summer in New York. Deanna was selected by Art Omi as its annual representative from the Kansas City region, an honor that is also accompanied by support from Charlotte Street Foundation for this trip.

Luke Firle, $750
Visual artist Luke Firle plans to use ArtsKC support to purchase a commercial grade vinyl cutter that will be used for works created collaboratively with visual artist Phil Shafer, as well as other future projects. The computer programmable cutter will make it possible for the artists to create large vinyl stencils for use in making work at a greater scale and in a more productive fashion.

Steve Gorman, $500
Local ceramicist Steve Gorman will receive funding to help purchase a high-quality ventilation system for his studio to reduce the safety hazard to himself and his family from inhaling toxic fumes and dust. Having recently received much recognition for his highly-acclaimed solo show at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Steve wants to increase his pace of work and his productivity in order to create five major pieces for an exhibition either on the West Coast or New York.

Rain Harris, $1,250
An ArtsKC Inspiration grant will help ceramicist and sculptor Rain Harris purchase several sheets of high density foam to create an installation of much larger, more elaborate and more delicate objects than she is accustomed to making. This exhibition will mark a turning point in her relationship with the local arts community, following Rain’s decision to remain in Kansas City indefinitely.

Peggy Noland, $750
Fashion designer and fiber installation artist Peggy Noland will create a short fashion film that showcases her wearable art, which will be shot in slow motion and high definition using a special-purpose camera. The fashion film, which will be viewable online and entered into film festivals, is inspired by the climactic explosion scene from Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Zabriskie Point.”

David Wayne Reed, $1,000
Playwright and author David Wayne Reed will help bring cult-favorite Late Night Theatre back to life with a production of “Mother Trucker 2,” a sequel to Reed’s original drama “Mother Trucker” that debited in 2004. ArtsKC funding will support production costs for the scenery for the play, which features an on-stage pickup truck.

Heidi Van, $950
Actor/creator Heidi Van, co-founder of the Fishtank Performance Studio, will use Inspiration funding to purchase a portable professional sound system for a new production, “Window Play.” The sound system will enhance the production values of this production and others that debut at the Fishtank and make it easier for them to be toured to other sites, such as the New Orleans Fringe Festival.

 

 

 

Previous recipients of Inspiration Grants can be found at the following links.  View past Inpsiration Grant Recipients here.

2010 Inspiration Grant Recipients

Details about Recent ArtsKC Fund Inspiration Grant Recipients 2010.
Inspiration Grant Recipients, 2007-2010.