Government education grants

There is so much emphasis placed on booking club and festival gigs that the independent musician often overlooks opportunities for work through government-funded grants. This work is important for our nation's young people ... and is satisfying and rewarding for the artist (not to mention helpful in paying the bills). There is a huge variety of grants available for musicians, but in this column we're going to focus on the Artists in Education programs. These grants are available in every state, and are awarded by state arts councils.

The programs are designed to enrich the experience of students by placing actual performing artists in the schools, supplementing the efforts of the arts program teaching staff. In the same way, the visual artist going into the school is not expected or required to teach the ordinary art curriculum. In the case of music, this means that you won't be teaching in the choral or orchestral music programs.

For the working musician, the advantage of this program is that you are always working during school hours, so that it won't interfere with evening gigs. In most cases, the artist hired will be a soloist, because budgets simply aren't large enough to pay groups of musicians. It varies by state, but the pay is roughly $100 a day. When you fill out the grant application, you will be asked whether you are willing to travel to different parts of the state. In some of the smaller eastern states, like Rhode Island or Delaware, this can be done without requiring you to find additional housing. In Texas, and many of the western states, you may have to find housing, because the travel distance is simply too great. Arts councils will generally not pay for your housing, but can assist you in finding low-cost housing, or placing you in a home with a local family.

Residencies can vary from a single day to as long as six months. When applying for the program, it is advantageous for you to also contact a school, which in turn can apply for you to be placed there. If you do not do this, you may be accepted into the program, but never actually get any gigs. This happened to me when I lived in Colorado, and was accepted into the Wyoming and Nevada programs, but never hired to actually work in these states. On the other hand, an actor-storyteller acquaintance of mine worked successfully in five different states. Your success will often depend upon whether your particular skill is available in the state where you are applying. Some states will not accept applicants who do not live in their state, because they already have a large population of performing artists to choose from.

Once you have filled out the application, and if the arts council is interested in your particular skill, you will be asked to audition for the program. Common sense ought to tell you that this is probably not the best place to bring out your repertoire of bawdy songs. After you perform, you will be interviewed and asked questions regarding how you will behave in certain situations in the school setting. For example, how would you, as a singer-songwriter playing acoustic guitar, handle requests by students that you perform or teach hip hop or techno hits of the day?

Although the arts councils are looking for musicians with interests and skills in a variety of subjects, songwriting seems to be one of the areas that is always in demand. Teaching songwriting in the schools is a bit different than offering a class to people who are already songwriters. You will often find that when you start working with the students, many will deny that they have any musical skills. Sometimes this self-protecting barrier can be broken down, as I have found that a surprising number of students write poetry.

Having the skills to deal with difficult situations is definitely an advantage when applying for these programs. I once taught songwriting to gang kids in a treatment facility. Arts councils tend to look favorably on creating artistic opportunities for under-served populations.

Although you may be asked to perform once during a residency, the nature of the artists in the schools program is not for you to express yourself, but for you to teach others how to convey their feelings and ideas. The truth is that some performers don't mesh well with the program because they are really looking for an audience, not for the opportunity to teach and share their talents.

It's also worth mentioning that the budget crisis is currently so severe in a number of states that the they are in the process of abolishing arts programs altogether, or are threatening to do so. The artists in education program that we are describing is probably the least likely to be abolished, because most legislators recognize the need to supplement the arts programs in schools today. In some states, the program is actually administered through Young Audiences, a national organization that sponsors school performances. You may want to see if they have a chapter in your city. Even if they don't administer the artists in the schools programs, they may have other gigs available.

As well as earning a living, working in the schools can provide emotional rewards for the artist. Two years ago, I was working in a Denver treatment facility for children, and noticed that one of the students was a veritable genius with the Casio, coming up with very interesting rhythms on a cheap keyboard. When I told the school principal about this, he was astonished, because this particular young man had tested at a below average IQ. Writing songs helped him to build up his self-esteem and confidence, and the experience left me with the feeling that I had done something useful. It was as rewarding to me as it was for the student.

It is also worthwhile for you to make your talents known to the staff of the state arts council. They may refer you to play some gigs, whether for state functions or through people that ask them to recommend a singer or a band. In addition, they also have other programs that you may be eligible to tap into. These range from occasional individual artist's fellowships to folk arts programs or small travel grants that are designed to assist artists in developing their skills by studying or going to conferences. As the people in the arts council get to know and trust you, they may call upon you to be a grant panelist, someone who recommends whether projects should be funded. This is a great experience, because it gives you a much better handle on how to write successful grants, and the sorts of things that are most apt to get funded.

Dick Weissman is the author of several music business books and has had a number of residencies in the Artists in Education program in Colorado, and was a panelist in the program. He's received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, City of Boulder, and the University of Colorado at Denver.