Transcript Sarah Last
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I’m Sarah Last and I work in interdisciplinary artforms usually with a focus on sound arts.
I put in an application to the inaugural ArtLab grant through the inter-arts office of the Australia Council and we were lucky to get $66,000 out of the $75,000 available. That was for a project called the Wired Lab which is a project we’re doing. It focuses on a project by a senior Australian artist called Alan Lamb who has been doing these amazing installations out in the open landscape and utilising old telegraph wire structures. And he records his music and it’s known as wired music.
With the grant writing process I really do think experience is necessary and you have to write a few of them to really get a jist of the language that’s required and how succinct you need to be and over the years I’ve learnt the earlier I start preparing the better my application is because it’s much more refined and it’s clearer. Lots of dense text, it’s very hard to get through, for the assessors to read that, so you just need short succinct points. And don’t over-commit yourself to things that are too big which you’re often tempted to do and you often feel you don’t have enough money to do the things you want to do but often a really good idea is enough.
With research and development I refer to my experience as a tertiary student, I use those skills because i look at what research has gone before in that particular area, then you talk about your idea and how you’re going to extend it through research and development and the ways you’re going to do that. You just need to be really clear with that and if you’re not a specialist in that area get someone on board who is because collaboration is really how most contemporary art projects work these days. There are very few artists that work in isolation and alone, I mean a lot of conventional art practices do that. In interdisciplinary arts that non-existent, so really utilise what’s out there.
In terms of planning, I think a really important way to approach it is - just give them simple points, a really pragmatic approach. You may feel you’re not conveying your true artistry and you’re having a business like approach to your project but just be clear, I mean, they are giving you money so you have to really establish how you’re going to spend it and that you’ve thought about your practical pragmatic things of where people live, how far they have to travel from, how much money a piece of equipment might cost. And I always put a contingency in for that reason as well, if you’re talking about processes, something might not work one weekend when you’re all working together and you’ll have to get together again and you’ll need to ensure that you have the means to do that.
When you first apply to the Australia Council it’s really important to go along to their information sessions because I’ve seen applications and you can tell the applicant hasn’t done that, and really if they’d just been given those few pointers from staff at the Australia Council I think their application could have gotten over the line. They have a free call number – I call them regularly in a range of sectors because I don’t just do my own practice, I work for other organisations. I’ve found that that has actually really helped me refine my project outline and address the criteria. My project might be doing other things than what the criteria are specifically asking me for, but all they are concerned about are the criteria – they have a mode of assessment which makes it equitable and fair for everyone so you have just got to make sure that you address those.
I put in an application to the inaugural ArtLab grant through the inter-arts office of the Australia Council and we were lucky to get $66,000 out of the $75,000 available. That was for a project called the Wired Lab which is a project we’re doing. It focuses on a project by a senior Australian artist called Alan Lamb who has been doing these amazing installations out in the open landscape and utilising old telegraph wire structures. And he records his music and it’s known as wired music.
With the grant writing process I really do think experience is necessary and you have to write a few of them to really get a jist of the language that’s required and how succinct you need to be and over the years I’ve learnt the earlier I start preparing the better my application is because it’s much more refined and it’s clearer. Lots of dense text, it’s very hard to get through, for the assessors to read that, so you just need short succinct points. And don’t over-commit yourself to things that are too big which you’re often tempted to do and you often feel you don’t have enough money to do the things you want to do but often a really good idea is enough.
With research and development I refer to my experience as a tertiary student, I use those skills because i look at what research has gone before in that particular area, then you talk about your idea and how you’re going to extend it through research and development and the ways you’re going to do that. You just need to be really clear with that and if you’re not a specialist in that area get someone on board who is because collaboration is really how most contemporary art projects work these days. There are very few artists that work in isolation and alone, I mean a lot of conventional art practices do that. In interdisciplinary arts that non-existent, so really utilise what’s out there.
In terms of planning, I think a really important way to approach it is - just give them simple points, a really pragmatic approach. You may feel you’re not conveying your true artistry and you’re having a business like approach to your project but just be clear, I mean, they are giving you money so you have to really establish how you’re going to spend it and that you’ve thought about your practical pragmatic things of where people live, how far they have to travel from, how much money a piece of equipment might cost. And I always put a contingency in for that reason as well, if you’re talking about processes, something might not work one weekend when you’re all working together and you’ll have to get together again and you’ll need to ensure that you have the means to do that.
When you first apply to the Australia Council it’s really important to go along to their information sessions because I’ve seen applications and you can tell the applicant hasn’t done that, and really if they’d just been given those few pointers from staff at the Australia Council I think their application could have gotten over the line. They have a free call number – I call them regularly in a range of sectors because I don’t just do my own practice, I work for other organisations. I’ve found that that has actually really helped me refine my project outline and address the criteria. My project might be doing other things than what the criteria are specifically asking me for, but all they are concerned about are the criteria – they have a mode of assessment which makes it equitable and fair for everyone so you have just got to make sure that you address those.
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