Applying for Fellowships and Grants

Applying for Fellowships and Grants

Tuesday, November 9, 2021, 6–7pm 

Multimedia artist Betty Yu discusses her approach and strategy for applying to En Foco’s Media Arts Work-in-Progress Grant and Photography Fellowship, both of which she was awarded in 2021 and 2020, respectively. Yu will be hosted by arts consultant Charlie Vazquez, who’s served as a grants panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the South Carolina Arts Commission, and other organizations. They will discuss the entirety of the application process, from aligning submissions to guidelines to what panelists look for when deciding which applications should be awarded and why.

Be sure not to miss this revealing professional development discussion for artists.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Betty Yu is a multimedia artist and activist born and raised in New York City to Chinese immigrant parents. She is a co-founder of Chinatown Art Brigade, a collective using art to advance anti-gentrification organizing. Ms. Yu was awarded residencies and fellowships from Laundromat Project, A Blade of Grass, International Studio and Curatorial Program, Intercultural Leadership Institute, Skidmore’s Documentary Storytellers’ Institute, KODA Lab, Asian American Arts Alliance, En Foco, China Residencies, Flux Factory, and Santa Fe Art Institute.

Her work has been presented at the Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, Tribeca Film Festival’s Interactive Showcase, the 2019 BRIC Biennial, Old Stone House, and Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center. She holds a BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, an MFA in Integrated Media Arts from Hunter College, and a One-Year Certificate from the International Center of Photography’s New Media Narratives program.

Charlie Vazquez is an author and art consultant specializing in copywriting and grant writing. He has studied story craft for over twenty years and has designed, facilitated, and funded arts and wellness programs for the NYC Department of Health, the New York Public Library, the Bronx Council on the Arts, and PEN America, serving low-income communities, undocumented immigrants, LGBTQI youth-of-color, and senior citizens.

Organizations that have sought him as a panelist include the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York Public Library, the South Carolina Arts Commission, Humanities New York, and Scholastic Books.

En Foco is supported in part with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and BronxCare Health System.

Additional support is provided by Jerome Foundation, Joyce Mertz-Gilmore Foundation, The Joy of Giving Something, Inc., Rockefeller Brothers Fund Culpeper Arts and Culture, New York Community Trust Mosaic Network & Fund, the Phillip and Edith Leonian Foundation, Ford Foundation, and Aguado-Pavlick Arts Fund.