Whether it’s French fiddling, Wabanaki basketry or North woods canoe making, mastering a traditional art calls for an understanding of a particular style or choice of materials, as well as a deep connection to place and local practices. These influences play an essential role in shaping a traditional artist’s work and/or repertoire. The Traditional Arts Fellowship Program seeks to honor Maine artists who have devoted their lives to keeping these traditions alive. Through their creativity and commitment, the cultural identity of an entire community is celebrated and reaffirmed.

• Deadline: June 14, 2013
• Maximum grant amount: $13,000
• Funding will be available after September 12, 2013

What are Traditional Arts?

Traditional arts are passed down through the generations, reflecting the values and practices of a shared culture based on geography, language, religion, occupation, ethnic heritage, tribal affiliation or family background.

Boat building, basket making, wood carving, chain saw carving, fly-tying, instrumental and vocal music, step dancing, canoe making, snowshoe making, quilting, hooked or rag rug making and knitting are a few examples of traditional arts that are practiced in Maine. These arts are usually learned through observation and imitation at the hands of a master practioner rather than through classes, books, the internet or academic training.

Who is Eligible to Apply

Any individual Maine artist or group that:

• is a practitioner of traditional art, and
• is 18 years of age or older at the time of the application, and
• is not enrolled as a full-time student in a field related to the application, and
• has a valid Maine address and has resided full-time in Maine for a minimum of two years at the date of application, and
• has completed and filed all final reports required for previous Maine Arts Commission grants.

Artists may submit only one application for a Traditional Arts Fellowship during a single grant period. Artists who have previously received Traditional Artist Fellowships from the Maine Arts Commission may not apply for the next five grant cycles. An artist may be awarded a maximum of three Traditional Artist Fellowship awards in a lifetime.

Review Process

A jury of out-of-state traditional arts specialists review applications.

The jury’s recommendations are presented to the Maine Arts Commission which approves the selection process at its next regularly scheduled meeting.

Review Criteria

Traditional Arts Fellowship Grant proposals are reviewed on a competitive basis using the following criteria:

• Artistic excellence.
• Cultural significance.
• Authenticity.
• Artist's contribution to sustaining traditional art.
• Role of artist in their community.

Required Application Materials

Please review the following required materials carefully in preparing your application materials. Failure to comply with these requirements will result in disqualification of your application. Only complete applications will be accepted. Please do not submit work in elaborate file folders or packaging. Make copies of all application materials for your records prior to submitting them.Preparing your documents for submission - All word documents must be saved as .doc or .rtf files and adhere to the following naming convention: lastname_firstname_TitleOfDocument.rtf (example: shaw_kathy_resume.doc or shaw_kathy_narrative.rtf).

• eGRANT ApplicationYou will upload all supporting documents (with exception to video, audio or images) through eGRANT.
• A two page biographical statement including the following:
1. An overview of your traditional art form.
2. A description of how you learned your art including who taught you as well as other family, tribal, ethnic, occupation influences on your work.
3. How long have you been practicing your art form?
4. Describe the community where you practice your art. What is your role as an artist in this community?
5. Why is this art form important to you? To your community?
6. Please include a description of local, state or national recognition of your work.
• Letters of support Submit up to three letters of support by a community member stating the qualifications of the applicant.
• Vendor Form (form below)This is information used by the Treasury to generate a check if the grant is awarded. Applicants should be sure to indicate the address the check should be sent to. You must mail form with your signature to our office. Faxed copies are not accepted.

WORK SAMPLE SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

There are up to ten opportunities to submit work samples with your application, although not every application will ask for ten samples. Work samples are a crucial aspect of your application and it is essential that they are of professional quality and appropriate representations of your current abilities.

Naming of all files should use the following convention: last name_title_year of work (Eg: Doe_Untitled_2010.jpg). There is a maximum of 72 characters file name limit and the name should NOT contain spaces or characters other than letters, numbers, underscores and hyphens.

An explanatory document must be included with the work samples to provide an additional reference for the submissions. Information on this document should list the work and include artist name, title, medium, size (if applicable), year of creation, and any other (brief) information that will better inform the reviewers about the artwork.

Represented work must be current; preferably within the past three years.

FORMAT REQUIREMENTS FOR WORK SAMPLES ARE AS FOLLOWS:

LITERARY Preferred format PDF, but WORD documents will also be accepted. Literary samples should be examples of an artists literary creation(s), submitted in the way that corresponds to the application. Manuscripts should include works of prose or up to five poems. Script and playwriting applicants should include one act or scene. Manuscripts in all genres must not exceed 20 pages. Selections from a longer script or work of prose may be accompanied by a synopsis of the complete work. All materials must be legible in 12-point or larger type and double spaced.

For Individual Artist Fellowship applications only:

The manuscript must not include evidence of publication. Copied, published material that is not in original manuscript format will not be accepted. Authors who illustrate their own work may send in unpublished renderings. The name of the author should not appear on any manuscript material.

IMAGES Preferred format JPEG, but PDF images will also be accepted.Optimal image size is 1920 pixels on the longest side (to accommodate HD viewing) at a resolution of 96 dpi and a file size under 5mb. Images can be a digital photograph or a digital scan.

AUDIO Preferred format MP3, but WAV or AIFF files will also be accepted.Optimal audio submissions should be an audio file under five minutes in length in a file size under 10mb. If the audio file is longer than five minutes listening points should be indicated on the explanatory document about how to listen to the work sample(s). Links to audio files that are housed online can count as audio submissions.

VIDEO Preferred Format MPEG-4, but MOV and AVI files will be accepted.It is preferred that time-based works submit at least one video work sample. Optimal video submissions should be a video or video clip under five minutes in length in a file size under 20mb. If the video file is longer than five minutes viewing points should be indicated on the explanatory document about the work samples. Links to a video URL that is housed on a hosting site such as Youtube, Vimeo, or the artist’s website can count as a video submission.

If you are unable to upload your materials or you wish to submit files that are copy-protected you may submit the work samples on a CD or DVD. If you do this you must send six copies of the material. Please write the appropriate information to identify the application on the disc itself (not on the case).

WEB Website URL address in a PDF, but WORD documents will also be accepted.If the artist has their materials in an online resume or some other networked means of exhibition they can direct reviewers to the material by providing a URL. The URL should link to a specific page containing the work sample. An applicant should not assume the reviewers will navigate into the site if directed to the home page. The applicant may suggest preferred web browsers for optimal viewing of submitted materials in the explanatory document about the work samples.

The Maine Arts Commission reserves the right to use submitted materials in the promotion of the artist and/or Maine Arts Commission programs. The material will be used in a promotional manner only and will not be used for commercial purposes.

We recommend that contributors consider licensing their media files under a Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial/Share-Alike license.

How to Apply

Applicants are required to apply through the Maine Arts Commission e-GRANT system. E-GRANT will accept applications until 11:59 pm, E.S.T., however; agency staff is only available to answer questions until 5:00 pm, E.S.T. Because of the volume of e-GRANT submissions on the day of any grant deadline, we strongly recommend you give yourself a 24 hour buffer.

Applicants who are unable to apply through e-GRANT must contact Kathy Ann Shaw at 207/287-2750, 877/887-3878 TTY/NexTalk User ID: kathy.shaw or kathy.shaw@maine.gov to discuss an alternative prior to applying. Alternative submissions will not be accepted without prior authorization.

The agency will not accept late or incomplete applications under any circumstance.

Grant information is available in large print format by request. All Maine Arts Commission programs are accessible to people with disabilities. All programs funded by the Maine Arts Commission must also be accessible.

If you have any questions before you begin the application process, please contact Kathleen Mundell, traditional arts specialist, 207/236-6741 or mainetraditionalarts@gmail.com.

Apply Now!