Attention artists! Get ready to get some grants

Liz Young, from the Florida Keys Council of the Arts, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s been going on with the arts.

Monroe County is part of the South Florida Cultural Consortium.

Young said, “With all the big guys, Palm Beach County, Broward County, Miami Dade County and our fellow small county, Martin County, which is probably the one we’re the closest to and we have been a consortium for 30 years, promoting and supporting South Florida as an amazing arts destination. It’s a wonderful opportunity for me and the other four executive directors to collaborate. Probably the most visible thing that we do is the consortium artists grants. It’s a big deal. It’s a very prestigious grant.”

Applicants must be able to prove residency for at least two years.

Young said, “Then you apply online with an artist statement, the CV resume, and 10 images. So 10 pictures are uploaded into the website. All of the artists that apply are judged by a regional panel, and then they narrow it down to a national panel. These visual and media artists are seen by museum curators and very prestigious people in the art world to look for up and coming amazing contemporary, emerging artists. The artists are judged within their county. So we do not have Monroe County artists being judged with Miami Dade artists.”

It’s a $15,000 award.

The application is open now and can be found on www.keysarts.com

Young said, “The application is due at midnight on October 2. There will be three free online workshops. The first one is on Monday, and then there’ll be two in early September. There’s one at lunchtime, there’s one in the morning and there’s one at like, I think four or five o’clock. So that if you’re a working artist, you’ve got your choices of days and times of day, which I really appreciate.”

The artist in school grant application and the special project grant application deadline will be on November 30.

Young said, “My panel will then review those mid December. Then the board of directors will vote on those recommendations in January. So if you apply by November 30, those grants are for either going into the schools, enhancing the curriculum with an art project or an art process, collaborating with the classroom teacher, up to $2,000 for that for the spring semester. Then the special project grant is really very simple parameters. You have to want to do a project, you apply with a project that has a beginning, middle and end. Just something you really want to try, something new, whether it’s framing a new collection, or recording new music or support for getting written work published, lots of different ways you can apply to the special project grant. The Arts Council likes to keep our grants very simple.”

The Arts Council is also working on a gallery guide.

Young said, “The gallery guide covers, galleries, nonprofit and profit galleries. You have to have 60% of original art in the gallery. We really promote galleries not shops. The guide is done annually as a partnership with the Tourist Development Council, so it’s a wonderful guide for our visitors. We have it in all the Chambers and all the hotels and the theaters and places just to promote the art, as well as with our members. All the galleries have the gallery guide. It has an app from Key West to Key Largo. We promote your address. Then on the flip side of the guide, you have a little thumbnail image, either of the front of the gallery, or the inside of the gallery or sometimes people put a piece of art with a blurb, about your work. This is a nonprofit gallery representing 15 artists or this is a tiny little gallery on a little lane featuring watercolor art. Whatever it is, it’s described in that area with a phone number and a website. Believe it or not, it takes probably three months to put it together and get it printed and get it distributed. So we are currently working on the 2024 Gallery. It’s a $375 fee to get your listing in there, but that also makes you, the gallery, a member of the Arts Council. So they receive all the membership benefits, which is attending a lot of our programming as a member. I actually had a big membership committee meeting yesterday, wonderful turnout of our board members and advisors, planning all of our events for the season.”

A member show will be held in Key Largo at the library on November 1 and then in Key West at the Gato on November 3.

Young said, “Our big holiday party is set for December 14 in Key West. Our annual meeting will be January 25 in Marathon and I’m working on events for the Connections Project, which is going to have a music focus this year, which I’m super excited about and Gather Round Culture Circle series will have four events for our members that will focus on our ABC grants that we just awarded. We just awarded 11 grants, six of them are ABC grants, four of them will be featured in our Gather Round series.”

There are a lot of events still in August and September.

Young said, “William Paul is doing a lot in Key West. There’s a new protect center that has a beautiful gallery, they’ve got a show up now called A Wave of Color and they’re going to have the meet the artists that’s in Islamorada. There’s definitely a lot going on. All of our students are getting back to all of their dance classes. There’s a lot going on with everybody with the school schedule, too.”

The Tropics Cinema also had big blockbuster movies over the summer.

Young said, “They’ve also got just some beautiful curated little like mini festivals. I know they’re doing a whole thing with NOW, women voting, and there’s a whole lot of women equality films at the Tropic. I went and saw Barbie. I have to confess it was amazing. My husband came with our adult daughters. I can’t remember the last time the four of us as a family went, but our daughter was home from school. And we went and it was outstanding. The music, the acting, the costumes, the writing, it is terrific. No spoiler alert, but a little Key West moment. Hysterical.”

Both Key West and Monroe County are doing very big public art projects.

Young said, “I’m going to schedule early October, probably two public art application workshops, how to do a really good public art application for both of our programs, and I’m planning on doing one or two in person and perhaps one on Zoom as well.”

The Fantasy Fest folks are looking for people to do floats or walk.

Young said, “We have a fabulous, fabulous poster design that will also be on the T shirts. And so now the big push is to get a lot of locals to be in the walking part of the parade and also to do the float.”

All information can be found at www.fantasyfest.com

Young said, “We have to all gather around this fabulous team that is producing Fantasy Fest now because it’s our responsibility to make it creative. We’ve got to really get back in there and make it a fun competition, bragging rights of winning those. I believe the Chamber does help in funding some of the prizes and there’s some decent money there being handed out. But certainly, the bragging rights of having a winning float in the Fantasy Fest parade is what Key West is all about.”