{"id":547,"date":"2009-05-11T19:24:05","date_gmt":"2009-05-12T02:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/05\/arbitrary_art_grant_-_you_dont\/"},"modified":"2009-05-11T19:24:05","modified_gmt":"2009-05-12T02:24:05","slug":"arbitrary_art_grant_-_you_dont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/05\/arbitrary_art_grant_-_you_dont.html","title":{"rendered":"Arbitrary Art Grant – You don’t have to be good to win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Artists for a Work Free America and Vital 5 Productions<\/a> are offering a grant that mocks all others. The entry deadline is Friday. Because few people have entered, undoubtedly suspecting a joke, the chances of winning are pretty good. The Arbitrary Art Grant is a joke, but it comes with a real payout of $500.<\/p>\n

\"arbitaryartgrant.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Call it kidding on the square.<\/p>\n

You have 5<\/strike> 4 days left to walk into a grocery store, construct a sculpture from the store’s inventory and email an image to: info@vital5productions.com.
\nAll entries will be exhibited this summer at the Bumbershoot Festival in Seattle, and one random applicant will be awarded $500.00 USD. <\/p>\n

This grant is open to all people in all countries of all ages and backgrounds. The winner will be announced on May 30th along with the outline for our next Arbitrary Art Grant in Writing.
\nFor more information, visit: www.vital5productions.com\/currentevents
\nBrought to you by Artists for a Work Free America and Vital 5 Productions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s the romantic part.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We believe that no institution or individual holds the capacity to objectively judge who should, and who should not receive money to create art. We are all painters and writers, musicians and performers, and that through social conditioning we have been stripped of our natural desire to create and perform, and programmed to believe that art is for the gifted and privileged. If indeed all people are artists, and that the inherent nature of art is subjective; the current institutions disbursing public art grants are negative and isolating to the general art populous.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

In 1993, Elizabeth Sisco, Louis Hock and David Avalos managed to ring the that-ain’t-art bell by giving away $10 bills to day laborers just north of the Mexican border. The NEA withdrew funding. God knows the NEA didn’t want to get caught doing anything for day laborers. (New York Times story here<\/a>. Artist response to NYT story here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Back to this Arbitrary Art Grant<\/a>, the latest in a string, none of which receive government funding<\/strike> (This one does). Even if you don’t win the money, you’re guaranteed to be part of the exhibit. I couldn’t find in the directions “one entry per person” but it’s there. <\/p>\n

Finally, from Jen Graves’ excellent profile<\/a> of Seattle dealer Scott Lawrimore (Lawrimore Project<\/a>), an anecdote from his early days as gallery assistant:<\/p>\n

\n
When he was working for Seattle galleries, he instituted a program: the $150 studio visit. He’d go to artists’ studios but often would be unable to show their work for one reason or another, so he’d give them $150 in exchange for whatever they thought that was worth. “I always wanted them to, like, spit in a napkin and give it to me,” he said wistfully. “But they never did.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Artists for a Work Free America and Vital 5 Productions are offering a grant that mocks all others. The entry deadline is Friday. Because few people have entered, undoubtedly suspecting a joke, the chances of winning are pretty good. The Arbitrary Art Grant is a joke, but it comes with a real payout of $500. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}