Eight tips to win a New York State Foundation for the Arts grant for fine art photography, painting, video

1. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Plan Weeks in Advance
• Review All the Grant Requirements
• Look at NYFA Winners and Jurors from Last
Time
• Check-Out Other Grant Information
• Draft A Photography Statement
• Size and Prepare Images
• Curate and Select the Images
• Complete the Application
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

2. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Fine art photography grants are extremely
limited.
• The few that remain are very competitive.
• One remaining option is the
New York Foundation for the Arts/NYFA
• Only for New York State based artists.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

3. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Plan Weeks in Advance
– Planning ahead is key.
– Waiting to the last minute can make the
process more difficult.
– Plan at least four to eight weeks in advance.
– Allow enough time to organize photographs,
think about the work statement, and other
tasks.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

4. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Plan Weeks in Advance
– If the photographs have been edited, the
submission process might take 2 and 5 hours.
– If not, the application could take several days
to prepare and submit.
– Join the NYFA mailing list to be reminded of
the deadlines.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

5. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Review All the Grant Requirements
– Reviewing all the grant requirements for
NYFA.
– Its the crucial first step to a successful
application.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

6. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Review All the Grant Requirements
– Any grant organization look for ways to
immediately reject an application.
– Spend an hour or so first reading everything
on the grant before starting.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

7. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Review All the Grant Requirements
– Check the deadline.
– For photography, the last time to submit
an application is January 14, 11:59pm,
2013.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

8. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Review All the Grant Requirements
– Avoid forgetting important due dates.
– Enter the NYFA deadline and other grants in a
calendar program such as Outlook.
– Check for grant deadlines every week.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

9. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Review All the Grant Requirements
– Read all the documentation.
• Resident of New York State
• Are over 25
• Have not won a NYFA grant recently.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

10. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Look at NYFA Winners and Jurors from
Last Time
– It can be very useful to review previous grant
winners and jurors.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

11. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Look at NYFA Winners and Jurors from
Last Time
– Its helpful to understand more about what
NYFA is looking for.
– Some of the winners and jurors might even be
familiar or an old teacher or fellow artist.
– View on the NFYA web site.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

12. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Check-Out Other Grant Information
– “Application How To Videos”
– NYFA “Artist’ Fellowship Application Tutorial”
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

13. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Check-Out Other Grant Information
– NYFA stresses that the award is based solely
on the work sample submitted
– Not based on a specific project.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

14. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Draft A Photography Statement
– Use descriptive language that is jargon-free.
– Keep a standard artist statement on file.
– Modify it for each grant to save time.
– Writing a statement or proposal from scratch
for each application can be very time
consuming.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

15. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Size and Prepare Images
– Images must be saved as a JPG format.
– Each image cannot be larger 1240 by x 1240
pixels.
– DPI must be 72.
– File names cannot have punctuation, symbols
or spaces.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

16. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Curate and Select the Images
– Images are viewed four at a time.
– Curating or ordering the images are an
important.
– Perhaps place the strongest work first.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

17. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Curate and Select the Images
– Present a very cohesive body of work.
– Submit work that best represents an original
photographic vision.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

18. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Complete the Application
– Carefully follow all instructions.
– Review each image after uploaded and fill out
the all the required fields such as Title,
Medium, Date, Size.
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant

19. Steve Giovinco
Fine art
www.stevegiovinco.com
info@stevegiovinco
• Complete the Application
– Once complete, review again.
– Make sure there are no errors.
– Remember: jurors are looking at many
thousands of images.
– Good luck!
8 Tips for Photographers: NYFA Grant