The Charlotte Street Visual Artist Awards seek to recognize and significantly support Kansas City-based visual artists of all media who are creating exceptional contemporary work. Providing artists with financial support, critical recognition, and public exposure, these Awards aim to reward artistic accomplishment to date and to support the continued development of artists’ work and careers.

Awarded artists will be those who:

• Generate exceptional new work as visual artists
• Create work that is accomplished, imaginative, and contemporary
• Demonstrate sustained commitment to the development and deepening of their work and artistic practices

Through recognizing and supporting exceptional artists living and working in Kansas City, Charlotte Street seeks to empower and propel individual artists, enhance the artistic culture of our region, and increase Kansas City’s desirability as a place for artists to live and work. 

Each 2019 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award Fellow receives:

• An unrestricted cash grant of $10,000
• Recognition by Charlotte Street at the time of the Award announcement and throughout the year 2019—including announcements to media, web-based marketing and promotion, special events, etc.
• Inclusion in the 2019 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award exhibition at Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, accompanied by a printed brochure with images and commissioned writing about their work.

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION:

• Strength of artistic work to date
• Promise for future artistic achievement
• Commitment to and demonstration of innovation and experimentation in terms of form, content, process, and/or presentation
• Potential impact of Award on continued artistic development

ELIGIBILITY:

• Applicants must currently live and have lived for at least one year prior to application deadline in the five-county Greater Kansas City Metro area (Clay, Jackson, Johnson, Platte, Wyandotte).
• Artists must be at least 21 years of age by application deadline.
• Applicants may not be currently enrolled in a degree-seeking program. If the artist has earned an undergraduate degree, the completion date must be at least 12 months earlier than the application deadline.

(Note: Applicants do not need to have attended undergraduate or graduate school to be considered for this award.)

Note on collaborative groups:

The Visual Artist Awards are intended to recognize and support outstanding visual artists as individuals. Collectives/collaboratives are eligible to apply if: 

• ALL members of the collaborative/collective meet the eligibility criteria described above.
• The group is well established and creating work in an ongoing, deeply collaborative, committed manner as a collective/collaborative.
• The primary work of each individual member of the group is as a member of the collaborative group, rather than as an individual.
• Each member of the group is playing an essential role in the creation of the work.
• The collective/collaborative is not incorporated as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Note: Artists applying as a collaborative group should submit individual resumes as well as a group resume, and should detail the nature of their collaboration in the narrative portion of the application. 

Additional eligibility requirements:

• Awarded artists will be expected to be residents of Kansas City (or one of the eligible five counties) for the Award year. (Artists will still be able to, and are encouraged, to participate in residencies, travel, etc., during the year)
• Awarded artists will be expected to keep Charlotte Street informed of all scheduled exhibitions and public engagements throughout the period of the Award year. 
• Awarded artists will be expected to have work available for exhibition in the 2019 Visual Artist Award exhibition, and to work in a collaborative manner with the exhibition curator and other representatives in order to select and prepare work for the exhibition and associated publication.
• Awarded artists will be expected, as reasonably as possible, to be available for associated Award events, receptions, public programs, etc. 

Note: Previous Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award recipients are NOT eligible to apply.

SELECTION PROCESS:

The 2019 Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award Fellows will be selected through an OPEN CALL for applicants followed by a competitive selection process. A selection panel of regional and national visual arts professionals will be solely responsible for selecting the 2019 Award Fellows. Neither staff nor Charlotte Street board members have any input in the final decisions. 

THE SELECTION PROCESS WILL BE CONDUCTED AS FOLLOWS:

11:59pm, Sunday, NOVEMBER 18, 2018: Application deadline

DECEMBER 2018 through JANUARY 2019: Panel review of applications; selection of 10 semi-finalists for studio visits.

LATE JANUARY 2019: Semi-finalists will be notified of their selection.

JANUARY 31 & FEBRUARY 1, 2019: In-person visits & final selection by panel will take place over the course of two days.

• 10 finalists will receive 30 minute in-person studio visits with the selection panel, providing opportunity for artists to share their work and respond to questions from the panel (if a space to show work is needed, Charlotte Street staff will work with the finalist to identify a space for the presentation).

• Following studio visits and final panel deliberations, the 2019 Visual Artist Fellows will be notified.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:

• All applications must be completed online at: www.callforentry.org (CaFE)

• The title of the call is “Charlotte Street Foundation 2019 Visual Artist Awards”.

• Deadline for applications is Sunday, November 18, 2018, at 11:59 PM MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE (DENVER, CO). No late applications will be considered.

• Note: Artists requiring technical assistance may contact Charlotte Street Foundation at 816.221.5115 or info@charlottestreet.org. In-person assistance will be provided upon request.

ARTISTS ARE REQUIRED TO SUBMIT ALL OF THE FOLLOWING MATERIALS:

1. ARTIST’S STATEMENT (500 words or less):

Your artist’s statement should clearly address 1) the work that you create; 2) the intentions that drive your work; 3) the ideas and influences that inform your work; and 4) the methods, materials, processes, etc. that are significant to the creation or presentation of your work.

Note: If applying as a collaborative/collective, please describe the work of the group as a whole, your approach to collaboration, and the role and contributions of each individual.

2. RESUME/ CV (including exhibition history/visual arts projects - 5 page maximum)

3. WORK SAMPLES: IMAGES or VIDEO files

Note: WORK SAMPLES are the most important component of applications, and should be carefully selected and prepared to most strongly represent your work.

Artists may submit EITHER A, B, or C below

A. IMAGES: 10 max

For artists whose work can be represented through still images, please submit up to 10 high resolution .jpeg images of work you have created in the past 3 years.

B. VIDEO: 10-minute max

For artists whose work is time-based, please submit up to 5 video work samples of work you have created in the past 3 years, totaling no more than 10 minutes in length. The preferred form of work sample submission is ONE 10-minute compilation representing 2-5 works, which makes for efficient review by panelists. This compilation should aim to provide panelists with a substantial view of your current work and its content through carefully selected samples. In lieu of one compilation, artists may submit 2-5 separate work samples/excerpts, totaling no more than 10 minutes in length. Submit video work samples either as URL links (preferred) or as video files uploaded through the CaFE system. (See below for more information about audio and video files.)

C. COMBINATION: (6) images and (1) 5-minute video, or (2) images and (2) videos totaling 8-minutes

For artists creating both still and time-based work, you may submit a combination of documentation of work completed in the past three years. You may submit either (6) images and (1) video totaling no more than 5 minutes, or (2) images and (2) videos totaling no more than 8 minutes. Compilation videos, as described above, are encouraged.

Descriptions of the work, including titles, medium, and any other descriptive information, should be included with the images as uploaded to the CaFE template. A seperate Work Sample list is not necessary as it was in previous years.

More about audio/video work samples:

The preferred method of submitting video work samples for this application is to upload them elsewhere (suggested host sites: Vimeo or YouTube) and to provide URL links rather than uploading files through the CaFE system. However, artists WILL NOT be penalized for uploading files through CaFE.

Questions: Please contact Charlotte Street at 816.221.5115 or email info@charlottestreet.org.

Application Requirements

Eligibility Criteria