Buffalo Rising Online

Sep 15th, 10:37am By Eli George

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) started a program last year called “MARK” directed towards visual artists. NYFA has given out $22 million to over 3,500 artists since 1985, and this latest addition to their multitude of programs is more than just a way to give grant money to artists. The MARK program tries to take artists and teach them valuable marketing skills to become more visible.

MARK is a six-month program that only 80-100 artists will participate in, but they will be picked from all over NYS, excluding NYC. It starts up in mid January 2009 and runs until June 2009. There will be four monthly seminars in each region and at the end of the period, there will be a weekend retreat in NYC for every artist who took part in the program. The monthly seminars here in the Buffalo region will be held at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, which is a partner of the MARK program.

The seminars will instruct artists on goal setting and strategies for expanding visibility. There will also be individual sessions where artists will garner information about portfolio development, grant/project proposals, speaking/writing about the work, and presenting the work in a public arena. Monthly assignments will be given out that require participants to apply the practical knowledge covered in class. To help do so, there will be a peer-learning e-mail interaction system with all of the participating artists across the state.

To be clear on who can participate, the MARK program has a set of guidelines about what kind of visual artists they are looking for. It follows: painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, drawing, artists’ books, computer arts (where the product is visual or multimedia including visual), crafts (as a fine art form rather than utilitarian), film (but only if used in installation (as a film loop projected in a gallery or alternative installation site; this particular program isn’t for feature, short, or documentary film producers)), and video (but only if used on a gallery installation (projected or on monitors – especially multi-channel – in a gallery or alternative installation site; this particular program isn’t for feature, short, or documentary video producers)).

If you are interested in the MARK program and would like to learn more, there is an information session today, September 15th, at Hallwalls at 6 PM. It is free to attend and learn about the program. The information session will outline the program, go over the application including deadlines/guidelines, and will also talk about other NYFA programs available to artists. To convince you of the program's value, artists who participated in last year’s program will be on hand to talk about their experiences with last year’s MARK program.

You can visit the MARK program’s website here for more information and an application if you can't make it to Hallwalls this evening.






Photo courtesy of Scot Fisher and Babeville.