Welcome, everyone, to the Special, to the Professional Development for Artists Application Workshop. I'm Martine Collier. I'm the Division Director of the Arts Council, and other Arts Council staff with us today are Kathy Collins, who will be, who manages the grants for this program. So she will be taking the lead in the presentation. We also have Eileen Blake with us and Lisa Hill. A couple of housekeeping things. There's going to be plenty of time for questions afterwards, and I will assist in answering those as well as Kathy. But if we can't hold our questions to the end and let Kathy get through the presentation first, that would be great. So without any additional delays, Kathy, take it away.
Thanks, Martine. As Martine said, my name is Kathy Collins. I am the Program Manager for the Professional Development for Artists Grant, and what we're going to do today is go over some of the application, some of the rules regarding this grant, and then we'll be able to answer any questions that you have at the end. The Professional Development for Artists Grant is one that was established to recognize artists within Hillsborough County. You can either be an established artist or an emerging artist on either local, national, or international levels. The Professional Development for Artists Grant is reimbursement-based. Now, this is very, very important, and I want everyone to understand this. This means that you must personally pay for either the equipment or the educational experience and then submit a reimbursement request along with all of the required documents in order to get reimbursed. You cannot have someone else pay for this and then submit the receipts from them. You cannot have your business pay for this and then ask for receipts or reimbursement. It has to come from your own personal account. That's very important, and I'm going to mention that several times throughout the presentation. The grant supports two things. You can either get a piece of equipment, such as a camera, a computer, a kiln, a 3D printer, or you can attend a professional development experience. However, you must show in your grant application that both of them are going to, in some way, advance your career as an artist. It's not something to, like, help better your business. It's actually something to help you as an artist. Next, the grant maximum is $2,000. That doesn't mean you have to apply for $2,000. If you want a piece of equipment that is $500, then ask for that. You are not required to have any kind of matching funds. However, as I indicated, because you have to pay for it and then ask for reimbursement, you have to show that you can actually do that, that you can afford to pay for it in full, then submit the request for reimbursement and wait for the county to pay it. Which typically takes anywhere from four to eight weeks to get payment. This particular grant, along with all of the other grants that the Arts Council administers, is funded by the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. The funding for this particular grant is based upon your score. You must receive a score of 70 or higher. However, that does not guarantee funding. Any and all grants that come before, grant applications that come before the Arts Council have to go before the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners who vote whether or not to fund the program. So, just because you get a score of 70 or higher, you have to wait to see whether or not the program actually receives funding. Now, this goes back to the reimbursement issue. In the grant, you're going to have a specific section or your grant application. You're going to have a section that talks about your budget. What you need to remember is that whatever you ask for in that budget, you are limited to asking for reimbursement. Now, I know this can be difficult because you're filling out a grant application in July. You can't even start until January. Things may change. That's okay. We do have a grant request change form. You can't change the amount of money that you ask for, but if things shift around, you can explain why you may need to have items in a different allocation, such as, for example, if you're asking for a development educational course and you thought that the hotel was going to cost X and the travel was going to cost Y, but they really turned out to be different, you can explain that within the amount that you requested that you need to just shift those. But you have to remember that if you asked for camera ABC, you can't come back then and ask for printer DEF. So just keep that in mind. The applications are currently open. They will close on Friday, July 31, 2026 at 5 p.m. If you are in the midst of working on your application at 4.59 and you hit the hit button at 5.01, it's not going to go through. Please make sure that you start working on your applications well before Friday, July 31st. Once all the applications are in, staff reviews the applications for eligibility and errors. You will also be notified if, for every reason, you are ineligible. Errors that we see can be fixed as long as it's before the deadline for when the applications should be in. So as applications come in, I generally will look at them. And if I see any glaring errors, I reach out and say, hey, this, maybe you have a date incorrect. This is wrong. It's going to deem you ineligible. If you can, please fix it. Please note that all, that incomplete applications are ineligible. The Arts Council Advisory Board is the one who reviews and scores the applications. Staff does not do that. A separate voluntary board is the one who reviews. And then they will meet on Tuesday, September 15th to approve the scores. You will receive an email inviting you to attend the meeting virtually. Simply all it's going to be is the applications listed out with the score. And then it goes to the Board of County Commissioners, who, again, they have to approve everything. So regardless of whether or not you receive a 70 or higher, or if the Arts Council Advisory Board votes to send the scores or the applications to the BOCC, until they actually fund the program and agree to fund each application, nothing is final. Please also remember that the grant that you're applying for right now is for fiscal year 2027. The dates of this grant are January 1, 2027 to August 15, 2027. Nothing can happen before January 1 or after August 15th. Now, this is just a list of those who are eligible. You just have to be 21 or older. You have to be an active artist. You must be a citizen or a permanent resident. You can't have received a grant from the Arts Council within the last three years, which would be 2024, 2025, or 2026. You also cannot be a full-time faculty member in an arts-related courses or enrolled yourself in either undergraduate or a graduate degree program. Again, an incomplete grant application will be deemed uneligible. With respect to equipment, please note that the equipment must be something that is durable and permanent. It can't be, for example, you can't ask for a grant to provide you with paint and canvas and things like that. It has to be something like a camera or a printer or a computer. And then within your application, you're going to have to provide the specifications regarding the product. So if you ask for camera ABC, make sure that you have links and information that show where you got the information for how much it costs, what the specifications are, and there's a section in the application where you include that. For the educational experience, it has to be something like a workshop, a seminar, or a residency. The expenses that are related to an educational experience would be the actual fee for the class, travel expenses to and from the educational experience, lodging for you only. And all of this has to take place between January 1 and August 15th. So, for example, if you see a workshop that you want to go to and it's in April, you can't buy it in December or you can't buy it in November. You have to wait until January 1 to pay for it. In addition, we do not allow for self-paced workshops. They have to be something that is led by an expert in the field, and it has to have something where you can show us what you're going to be doing during that time. These things are not reimbursable. So, for example, the county does not reimburse for food or beverages, gratuities, the consumable art products I discussed, entertainment. You also cannot have either transportation or lodging from non-commercial establishments. We don't pay for capital improvements to a studio space, and we also do not reimburse for equipment rental. Now, before you register for your application, it's strongly suggested that you go onto our website, look at the grant guidelines. The admin manual is also on there, and you can see a sample application and print it and work offline before you get into the actual application, which is done through the neighborly website. Keep these couple of things in mind as you're writing your application. These are the four areas that the Arts Council Advisory Board is going to review and score the application, and they include the relevance and impact of the proposal on your career as an artist, and that's important. Again, it's as an artist, not as maybe just someone who is a professional who happens to be in an art-related field. You must demonstrate commitment to your career, show excellence of your work as an artist, and make sure that your application is clear and organized. And I can't emphasize this enough. Please spell check. Please make sure that your grammar is correct. There's nothing more maddening than trying to read an application that is riddled with errors. It just drives the reviewers crazy. Now, as I indicated, our applications go through the neighborly software, so I've provided here the link for you to get into it to find the 2027 application. You only register once, but make sure that you keep your password and your username, because when it comes time to do the reimbursement, you're going to need those because you're going to use neighborly at that time to upload an invoice and submit your reimbursement request there. And I just indicated that, so just keep that in time. You also need the information for when it comes time to prepare your final report. This is what it looks like when you get into the neighborly. You're going to be looking for the professional development for artists. You click on that. Then you name your application and then start your application. The application is broken down into several parts as listed here. It is not a difficult or terribly long application, but all of the sections must be completed. You must provide work samples. You must provide the required support materials. And again, anything that is deemed incomplete is going to be deemed ineligible. Now, as you go through your sections, the program will put a blue dot that indicates that that section is finished. If for some reason before the deadline you realize that you need a section reopened, you can contact me and I can reopen it for you. It can't be reopened after the deadline. Now, in the proposal narrative, this is where you're going to tell the Arts Council Advisory Board a little bit about yourself and how the grant is going to help you in your career as an artist. So what I like to say is tell us who you are as an artist, what you hope to achieve as an artist, and how receiving this grant is going to advance your career. There is a section that requires an artist statement, and this slide gives you a little bit more information on that. I strongly suggest that you look at it to kind of get an idea of what we are looking for for an artist statement. But this is Andy Warhol's artist statement. You can see it's simple to the point. It's not a thesis. You're just telling the reviewers who you are and what your art is all about. Now, you have to provide information when you are asking for a piece of equipment. You've got to provide enough information that we can see that the equipment is actually something that you can get from a vendor. And we want to see, like, manufacturer information. The same goes for the conference or the workshop or the residency. We need to see the dates, where it's taking place, what they're going to be doing during that time. And then the same information would have to be provided for travel and lodging if you are going to be requesting reimbursement for any of that. The budget is pretty simple, but it has to be completed. You have to give the total cost. So, for example, if you're looking for a computer and the computer is going to cost $2,500, you think, you would include that total cost and then you would ask for reimbursement of $2,000 of that. We need to see how much everything is going to be because this also comes into play when you're asking for your reimbursement. You're going to be providing us with the receipts for what you purchased, and it needs to match what was in as much as it can to the budget in your grant application. Because the grant application is incorporated by reference into your grant agreement when you get it. So, it all kind of has to kind of come together, and we need to make sure that you're not asking for something or asking for reimbursement for something that you didn't ask for in your application. And, again, anything that you ask for has to be paid by you. You then ask for reimbursement, and anything over and above the grant award must be paid for you by you as well. So, this section discusses work samples. We want to see what you have done, and we want to see what you have created within the last two years of the application. There are some, you just have to explain what you are submitting. So, we want to know, for example, the name of the piece, when it was prepared or created, when any information you might want about that particular work piece. Remember, the Arts Council Advisory Board is reviewing a lot of applications. So, give them enough information and good samples so that it will stand out to them, and that they'll, like, they'll think back and say, oh, this person really does do good work. So, make sure that they're entitled, or titled, rather, and that they're clear, and that you can give enough information about how they were created. And this slide really kind of gives that information. Give the file name, the title, the dimensions, what type of media it is. If you are giving something for a performance and there are other performers on there, please make sure that you give information about them and highlight who you are. And again, any other descriptive information about the work. You also have to provide an artist's resume or a CV. A resume or a CV is not an employment resume. We want to see things that you've done as a professional artist. So, that would include any festivals or, you know, juried art shows that you've been accepted into, any awards that you've been received, that you've received, any other grants that you may have received, any and all accomplishments. Don't just, you're not going to list, we don't want to know where you work. We want to know what you're doing as an artist. You also are going to have to provide proof that you've been a resident of Hillsborough County since July 1 of 2025. And that can include your driver's license, property tax receipt, the first page of your income tax return, lease agreement, Florida vehicle registration. It just has to show that you've been a resident since July 1, 2025. Now, here are some additional tips. As I was talking a little earlier ago, I mentioned that the application is on our website. You can print it from there and work offline. We also strongly suggest that you try to put your work in like a Word document working on a computer and paste it in. Please note that Neighborly does not have a spell check in their system. So, you need to proofread. You also need to be mindful of word counts and character counts. So, if you do it in a Word document, you'll be able to see both of those. We strongly suggest that you have someone review your application. That cannot be us. That needs to be someone that you know that will tell you if they see any errors. Or if it doesn't, sometimes you know what you want to say, but when you put it down in words, it doesn't really come out. So, they might be a good sounding board for you to be able to, for them to say, I'm not sure what you're talking about. And then you can kind of go back in and craft your narrative better. Remember to upload all required documents before you complete your application. And we will answer questions. I can't provide specific advice on how to do things, but I can answer any questions that you might have. If you are one of the lucky ones that is funded by the BOCC for fiscal year 2027, the first thing we are going to ask you to sign is an acknowledgement that you understand that this is a reimbursement-based grant and that you understand what the reimbursable expenses are and what the reimbursement process is. Once that's done, we will then send you a grant agreement that you have to sign, and then a representative of Hillsborough County signs it. That is your contract with the county for this particular grant program. Until that is fully executed, we cannot do any type of reimbursement requests. We try to get them done before the grant period begins in January, but sometimes it doesn't always work that way. You just have to kind of work with us on this. You'll also have to provide a W-9 form. You should receive a 1099 at the end of the year from the county for the amount that you are awarded and reimbursed. We will hold another workshop once the BOCC votes, and we know who's going to get funded, and that will provide a lot more information with respect to what you actually have to do to administer this particular grant. Final suggestions include please be proactive, apply early to avoid problems. And when I say apply early, I mean that kind of means get your application done and make sure that you're ready to submit it well in advance of Friday, July 31 at 5 o'clock, because, again, no applications are going to be accepted. We had people in one of the last grant rounds, they were trying to submit something at 5.01, 5.02. The system shuts down at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. So there are no exceptions to anything being received after that time. And on our website, we have, as I said, we have the guidelines, we have the administrative manual, and we have a sample application. And if you have trouble accessing that, you can let me know, and I can send you a PDF of the guidelines and the manual. Now it's time for any questions that anyone might have.
Thank you, Kathy. Kathy, I'd like to add to your comment on applying, not waiting until the last minute to apply, that sometimes the system, if everybody's trying to apply at 4.59, it shuts down, or even earlier than that. The fact that you can't upload something that late is not going to give you any option. This is a hard and firm rule. And the real advantage of applying earlier than the deadline is that gives us a chance to look over your application, see if anything is missing, and tell you and help you, you know, get anything missing in, but we can't do that that close to the deadline. The other thing is if you do receive this grant, which is effective January 1st, if you're getting equipment, we would encourage you to do that as early in 2027 as you can to purchase it so we can reimburse you for it. Now, of course, if it's professional development, that could be happening any time in the year, and you have to wait for that to happen. But if it's equipment, it really is advantageous to go ahead and buy it and get everything in process simply because, for a practical reason, you'll probably get reimbursed more quickly if it's not at the end of the grant cycle when all the grants are applying. It will go through the process, and this actually will get your money faster. So that's another good reason. Any other any questions anyone has?
Well, first of all, this workshop has been recorded.
So if you would like to get a copy of the workshop, you can let Kathy know. And if you have questions when you actually go in to get into Neighborly to start the process, please let Kathy know. She will be happy to help you get started. If this is the first time you've applied for a grant, please don't be intimidated. We are here to help you, but you need to help us by letting us know soon what you need and getting the process started as quickly as possible. Kathy, am I missing anything else?
I don't think so.
Well, please know that all the Arts Council staff is here to help all of our grantees. So don't hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have. But the first step, if you came to this workshop today, that's your first step in being successful. The more information you have starting in, the better off you are. So congratulations to those that attended because it's setting yourself up for success, definitely. And let us know, again, anything. But before you even start, go to Word and start, you know, working on the sample application, go ahead and make sure you can get logged into Neighborly and get that out of the way. And then you'll be in good shape to move forward. Oh, I think we should also add, Kathy, that now, as of last year, the applicants for last year, we hosted. Tell them about the exhibition at Tempus Projects.
So last year we started an exhibit called Arts Council Honors, and we invite the grantees to share their artwork at Tempus Projects during the Ybor Art Walk, or I think it's Art Week. So the people at Tempus actually will curate the show for us, and I think it's one or two pieces. But as we get closer to the time, we will reach out and let you know the specific date in 2027. And it's not limited to just visual artists. If you are a poet and you want to do a reading, we can set up a time for you to be able to read your poetry. Or if you are a filmmaker and you have film or you're a musician and you have music, it's not just limited to the visual arts. We can accommodate all of the artists that want to participate.
Hey, the 2026, we're going to have a disc jockey, aren't we?
I'm not sure. She hasn't really responded yet.
Well, we could conceivably. So we cross all art forms. Any individual artist, whether theatrical or literary arts, we are eligible to apply for this. And we're going to try to find a way in this exhibition to highlight our applicants and what they do and what they have learned or been able to do as a result of an equipment purchase from this grant. So thank you all for attending and do let us know if you have any additional questions.
Thank you. Bye bye.