Eligibility
Application Review Process
How to Prepare Your Online Application Through This Website
About Art in General
Founded in 1981 in Lower Manhattan, Art in General is a nonprofit organization that assists artists with the production and presentation of new work. Over the past 27 years, Art in General has changed in response to the needs of artists and the public’s engagement with their work. Through this dynamic format, Art in General has emerged as one of New York City’s leading non-profit organizations devoted to supporting and stimulating the creation of contemporary art. We strive both to provide an environment in which artists can exhibit unconventional work, and to facilitate an exchange of ideas as well as a critical dialogue between artists, arts professionals, and the general public.
Through its New Commissions Program, initiated in 2005, Art in General facilitates the production and exhibition of projects designed and proposed by emerging artists. Art in General accommodates its mode of support (whether technical, social, academic or undefined) to fulfill the full requirements for full realization of the artist’s project. Thus Art in General has a different relationship to each artist and each project. To intellectually and logistically address the artist’s project proposal, Art in General acts primarily as a catalyst, sometimes as a co-producer and other times as the starting point of a larger, long-term artistic endeavor. It aims to provide artists with an optimal support structure and venue in which to realize and present their work, whether this format entails an exhibition, event, performance, location-based work in the public domain, or the very platforms of discursive space (i.e. publication, website, etc.).
Every year, Art in General invites and commissions new works from 5-7 artists. Four to five of these artists are chosen through an open call competition reviewed by an Advisory Panel; the other two to three artists are selected by Art in General after extensive research, studio visits, and meetings with local artists. The annual open call is not designed to respond to a given theme, site, or moment. It is open-ended with the intention of inviting artists to profoundly explore their individual interests, and for them to develop a proposal that is rooted, in principle, to their ongoing interests. Art in General is interested in commissioning works that are creative and inventive, proposing critical as well as imaginative approaches to content and form. The selection process also takes into account the many and diverse artistic practices that artists develop and apply, with the purpose of presenting the various ways of being, experiencing, and producing that exist in the world today.
Art in General anticipates working closely with the selected artists to develop and realize a new work. This program is designed for artists living and working in New York City and the surrounding region. (Art in General’s Artist Residency program is for national and international artists; applications for this program are not available at this time.)
To learn about the project proposals selected in 2008 and that have been commissioned or that are currently in development, please visit: Art in General
2 Guidelines, Terms of Eligibility, and Review Process.
Artists interested in being considered for the new commissions program must prepare and send an online Application using this website. The online application form can be accessed from January 21-March 1, 2009.
The Application deadline is: Sunday, March 1 at 11:59pm EST. Incomplete, late, printed or mailed Applications will neither be accepted nor reviewed.
GUIDELINES
Artists applying should present a project proposal for the creation of new artworks* in any medium or discipline, e.g. painting, sculpture, installation, sound or performance art, film/video art, digital work, and other undefined types of art or interdisciplinary work.
*New artworks can include an expansion upon a previous work providing that this expansion considerably alters the content, form or concept of original work and represents a significant advancement in the artist’s practice.
The goal of the New Commissions Program is to assist an artist in the production of a project which otherwise may not be possible to realize, therefore exhibition proposals of existing work will not be considered. However, Art in General welcomes proposals that creatively consider Gallery/Floor 6 or the street-level Storefront Gallery space as either production-site, exhibition space, or both. Art in General will also consider proposals that may not require the format of an exhibition for their presentation or that are meant for a site in the public domain.
Art in General supports the selected artists by providing professional, financial, and logistical assistance in the creation of new artworks, and by serving as a venue that exhibits, presents, and promotes these works. Selected artists will receive an artist’s fee of $3,000 and a project budget between $3,000-$5,000 to use for research, production, and installation. In addition, a publication including essays on the New Commissions Projects and images of the selected artists’ work will be published in consultation with each of the selected artists.
- Artists living and working in the greater New York City area (any city of New York or cities in its neighboring states located within a 60-mile N-S-E-W distance from Manhattan), independent of age, gender, and nationality.
- Artists with project proposals that demonstrate a potential for artistic growth, represent a significant shift in their work, or present a challenging exploration with new materials, concepts, or artistic practice.
- Artists represented by commercial galleries are eligible to apply. However, the proposal should demonstrate how the project would lack support during its development and exhibition stages within the commercial sector.
- Artists who are or will be enrolled in a college or university art degree-granting program between summer 2008 and summer 2009 are not eligible to apply. (However, if your expected date of graduation is Spring 2009, you are eligible to apply.)
- Artists who have participated in Art in General’s Artist Residency Programs or the New Commissions Program previously are not eligible to apply. Artists who have participated in other programs at Art in General are still eligible.
The application and review process includes 3 phases:
Phase 1 (Application deadline: Sunday, March 1, 2009 11:59pm)
An open call for project proposals is launched on January 21, 2009. Applications are prepared and sent using an online application. Artists can prepare and send their applications anytime between January 21-March 1, 2009.
Incomplete, late, or printed and mailed Applications will not be accepted or reviewed.
Phase 2 (March-April 2009)
Art in General and an Advisory Panel will review the online applications and select a short list of up to 20 project proposals. The Advisory Panel is made up of artists and prominent art professionals who have been involved in commissioning new work to artists or have been influential in critical discussions of contemporary art. The Advisory Panel rotates annually in order to access a wide range of views and selection criteria in the review process, and thus supports diverse artists and types of projects. For this reason, even if an artist applied and was not selected in the past, we strongly encourage artists to re-apply.
The artists selected from Phase 1 are invited to submit a more developed proposal. This proposal will consist of: (a) 1-2 page text describing the project in more detail, explaining the concepts that inform it, the forms it will take, and the rationale or motivations behind the proposal; (b) 3-paragraph artist’s statement or statement of intent; © preliminary detailed project budget; (d) list of potential technical requirements, if any; (e) list of 3 professional references; (f) further documentation of previous works, and ; (g) sketches, drawings or diagrams of the proposed project. Art in General will then conduct studio visits and/or engage in conversations with this short list of artists to learn about their ideas, work, and working processes.
Phase 3 (June 2008)
Art in General will make the final selection of project proposals based on the project’s artistic relevance, creativity, feasibility, as well as the project’s fit within curatorial concepts identified during the Open Call process. The selected proposals will be developed and exhibited or presented at Art in General in 2009-2010.
3 How to Prepare Your Online Application Through this Website.
This year, Art in General will only be reviewing online Applications at: http://commissions.artingeneral.org.
These are the 5 steps of the Application:
1. READ ABOUT ART IN GENERAL, GUIDELINES AND THE REVIEW PROCESS
If you are reading this, you are following rule #1.
2. CREATE YOUR ACCOUNT
You will be required to have a valid email address to set-up an account and fill out an application. Your email address will be your account Username and your Password will be one of your choosing.
To create your account, fill out all the required fields: Full name, email, password and password confirmation. Click Register Your Account.
Once you login, you will be able to draft and edit your Application. During this period of time, your information will be secure and your Application will only be accessed by logging in with your email and password. For this reason, we suggest that you keep your password confidential. We also recommend that you set-up an account at least 2 weeks before the deadline, so that you familiarize yourself with the application process.
If you loose your password a new one can be emailed to you from the login page.
Please continue reading the next steps before you create and log-in to your account.
3. YOUR PROPOSAL QUESTIONNAIRE
In this section, provide us with your contact information and write your project proposal. Include the title of your project proposal (even if it is a tentative title), a summary of your project proposal (up to 80 words) and the actual text of your proposal (up to 600 words).
Describe the artwork or project that you would like to develop. Explain the concepts that inform it, the form it will take, and the rationale or motivations behind your proposal. Word limits are measured automatically, and cannot be extended.
If you are selected for Phase 2 of this application process, you will be invited to submit and discuss a more developed proposal.
4. UPLOAD FILES FOR SUPPORT MATERIAL
Once you have saved your questionnaire information you will need to navigate to the “Upload Files & Images” section by using the tabs located at the top of the page.
Along with your written proposal you are required to upload support material. The support materials that you send should include both past work and sketches, diagrams or other visualizations of your proposed project as outlined below.
Each item you upload must include a title and caption. Example uses of the caption include, describing what the work is about, whether it belongs to a series of works or a larger project, or whether it is from a single-channel or a multi-channel installation. Please indicate in the caption whether each files is of past work or proposed work. Optional information includes dimensions and year.
Past work — You may upload up to 6 entries in total, which may include images, audio recordings, and/or videos. Please refer to the descriptions below for details regarding the format of these entries.
Proposed work — You may upload up to 3 entries which describe your proposed project. Such entries can include concept sketches, documentation of physical models, diagrams, renderings, short test reels, installation plans, samples images of the work-in-progress, etc. The point of this is to give the advisory panel a concrete idea of what you hope to produce.
Images — All images must be jpgs, tiffs, gifs or pngs and less than 1 megabyte. Any image resolution will be accepted.
Audio Audio entries can upload one MP3 audio file. The file must be less than 5 megabytes in size. Only the first minute or so of each audio file will be reviewed.
Video — For the first time this year artists may submit video online as support material. First you must find a place on the internet to host your video. Sites can include YouTube, Vimeo, Photobucket, or your personal website. Upload your video at the hosting site, then enter the link to the hosted video in the support material entry space.
Only the first minute or so of each video will be reviewed.
5. REVIEW
This section will show you the overview of your Application. This is the time to double check for errors or omissions. If you need additional time to prepare your application press “Logout.” You can log back in using your email address and chosen password. If you forgot or lost your password a new one can be sent to your email address by entering it onto the login page in the appropriate box and clicking Get new password.
When your Application is completed, press “Send” and Art in General will receive it. Once sent you will get a confirmation receipt email. Please note that once you press send, you will not be able to edit your application again. Remember, the deadline to send your Application is: Sunday March 1, 2009 at 11:59pm.
QUESTIONS: If you have questions concerning your Application, please send your inquiry to help@artingeneral.org. Due to the number of emails we receive, it can take between 2 and 10 days for Art in General to answer your email.
Before you send an email, please consult the Frequently Asked Questions.