Industry leaders across artistic disciplines share insights with Queer|Art|Mentorship applicants on how to create clearer and more compelling applications for arts opportunities in Queer|Art’s fourth annual Queer|Art Mock Panel series.
The inaugural Queer|Art Mock Panel series was created in 2019, with an eye toward providing our extended community of artists with the tools they need to better navigate the application process and craft more successful applications for arts opportunities. Our series is inspired by and modeled on a “mock panel” format introduced to us by artist and educator LJ Roberts at the New School, and invites Queer|Art|Mentorship artists and current applicants to the program to receive dedicated feedback on select application materials from arts professionals who are recognized leaders in their field.
The 2022 Queer|Art Mock Panels featured a stunning lineup of arts and cultural workers – including several returning panelists from previous QA Mock Panels series – who served as panel reviewers on four separate panels organized by creative discipline. The reviewers included: Ezra Benus and Ashley Artis in Visual Art, Lucy Mukerjee and Jose F. Rodriguez in Film, Yanyi and Nadxieli Nieto in Literature, and Eva Yaa Asantewaa in Performance. Each panel created a supportive space for the vulnerable task of sharing work in a public review and fostered rich and insightful conversations between panelists and participants.
Portfolio reviews once again took place live via Zoom; panelists were allotted ten minutes to parse through statements, work samples, and CVs, and given two minutes to field follow-up questions from the artists whose work was being reviewed. The program provided a unique chance for artists to “go behind the curtain” and get a sense of how jurors interpret their application materials, as well as how best to present themselves and their work for review.
Queer|Art’s Graphic Design and Social Media Manager Andrius Alvarez-Backus and Programs and Operations Coordinator greer x gathered some of the most impactful and memorable pieces of advice from this year’s panels:
Engage with all aspects of the application as storytelling. Your application should be communicating to reviewers who you are as an artist and what you hope to do with this project or opportunity. Think about how each piece of the application adds more detail and dimension to that story without being repetitive. The artist statement should expand upon and connect to the Bio. The work samples should be ordered in a way that reviewers can follow a progression as they move through your work.
Make full use of the Description box for any work samples. If the application provides space for you to add a description for your work sample, you should use that to not only share information about the sample but also to continue to tell your story and reveal your point of view. It’s important that you communicate any necessary information (the who, what, when, where of the work) about the piece, but with the additional space try being a little creative with what you share. Maybe it’s a good place to add some more context about how the piece was developed, or possibly you can use it to draw out the connections between your theoretical frameworks and how the work is coming to life. The space is yours to use, so don’t be afraid to reveal your personality and perspective!
Hyperlink your Articles! If you have published work that is listed in your CV or elsewhere in your application, consider adding a hyperlink to the article. It’s possible that most reviewers will not click on them, but one who is very interested by you and your work may jump at the opportunity to read a little bit more. It’s an effective way to offer more of your work and words without overstepping any word or work sample limits.
Always triple-check for typos – especially with people’s names! This is a relatively obvious point, but it still bears repeating that you should make every effort to ensure that there are no typos in your application. Many reviewers may also serve as editors or other positions that require a keen eye for spelling and grammar errors – you want them to be focused on the story you are trying to tell, not on your punctuation mistakes. Additionally, panelist Eva Yaa Asantewaa stressed the importance of ensuring that any name in your application is accurate to how that person prefers to have their name credited. It’s an act of care that shows that you appreciate and respect the artist who you have collaborated with or learned from. Also, as with the grammar mistake, you want a reviewer to be thinking about how that connection frames your work, not that you misspelled the name of their colleague.
Try having a friend write your bio if you’re struggling. If you are having a hard time writing a bio for yourself, consider asking a friend who knows you and your work well to write a bio for you. Sometimes it can be challenging for us to heap praises upon ourselves and our work, or even just to have a clear sense of how our work exists beyond ourselves, but this is where a friend’s perspective can be very helpful. Panelists suggested that you and a friend could write bios for eachother as an exchange, or that you could ask a friend to write a bio and then use that as a jumping off point for drafting your own.
Lead with your strongest work and words. This piece of advice is a mainstay in every Mock Panel series that QA organizes, but it remains very true and important! When deciding which work samples to share and what order to share them in, always lead with what you feel is your strongest piece of work. Similarly, panelists noted that many applicants seemed to put the thesis of their work towards the end of their artist statement and suggested that they instead move those cruxes to the first sentence.
Triangulate your work with references. A great way to help a reviewer to understand how you are thinking about your work, as well as how the finished product might live out in the world is to provide a couple of references to similar works. Panelists shared that these don’t necessarily need to be in the same medium that you are working in. If there are films, tv shows, books, podcasts, or other pieces of media that are exploring similar topics or utilizing similar techniques, they can be great tools to help communicate how your work will be situated. Don’t be afraid to drop these references into your artist or project statement!
Be open to thinking a little outside the box with your CV. Resumes and CVs always inspire a divergence of opinions from our reviewers, and this year was no exception. However, many of our panelists responded very positively to applicants whose CV was a little outside of the box such as by using color, innovative layouts, or including a personal mission at the top of the document. Using a “standard” template remains a safe choice, but when a reviewer is flipping through hundreds of CVs, it can help to do something to make yourself stand out and be a bit more memorable. However you choose to format your resume or CV, always ensure that you are using a font size that is easily read, and that you consider the possibility that the document may be printed (and particularly may be printed in black and white!)
Prioritize access when sharing your work samples. If you are sharing video samples, include captions within the video itself (participants in the panels suggested Aegisub as a free captioning software with a low learning curve!) to ensure that reviewers will have access to the captions regardless of how the video is accessed. If there are sounds that are crucial to understanding the work, consider adding a description of the sound as a caption. If you are sharing images, include visual descriptions of the work. These practices are great for making your work more accessible, but also they help to ensure that all reviewers will be able to engage fully with your materials, without any barriers.
Try the “Grandma and Best Friend” Test. Visual Art Panelist Ashley Artis shared this helpful technique for ensuring your application is easy to engage with: before you hit submit, ask yourself if you gave this application to your Grandma or your Best Friend, would they be able to read it and relay back to you what the gist of the project is? You don’t want to water down any of your ideas, however, it’s also important not to assume that every reviewer is going to have engaged with specific works of theory that undergird your project. Try to find a way to present your ideas fully and authentically while also ensuring that the writing is accessible, regardless of the background of the individual reading it.
Your application is your opportunity to share a story with the jurors. Tell them where you’ve come from and where you’re going. Reel them in with your work samples and leave them desperate to see what you’ll make next. Think about the sinews that connect each element to each other, as well as how the application reads as you progress from one element to the next. Don’t be afraid to take risks, use humor, and really inject yourself into every single thing you share.
No one likes to be rejected, but unfortunately, it’s a part of life and particularly a part of applying for arts opportunities. Selection is a very subjective process, and just because your story wasn’t right for a specific application doesn’t mean that it won’t be perfect for the next one. The process of crafting an application is an iterative one. Keep learning more about yourself, your work, and how you want to share yourself each time you submit.
Good luck!
P.S. For more tips, read our previous blog posts from past editions of Mock Panels: “Elevate Your Application With These Tips From Queer Arts Professionals” by Graphic Design and Social Media Manager, Andrius Alvarez-Backus, “Six Ways to Make Your Application Shine,” by Programs & Operations Assistant, Dani Brito, and "How To Sharpen Your Application Skills," by former Queer|Art|Mentorship Facilitator, Kris Grey.