Utah Artist Fellowship Program

Applicants must meet all of the following requirements to apply.

Must be 25 years of age or older at the time of the deadline.
Artists must be originators of work submitted.
Performing arts applicants may submit their interpretation of others' work.
Must be Utah residents for two consecutive years immediately prior to the application deadline.
Previous fellowship recipients may not apply.
Must have a U.S. Tax ID Number (SSN, EIN, ITIN, or other)
Note: Fellowship recipients are responsible for all applicable federal taxes. We urge that you keep all receipts and other appropriate records for tax filing purposes. Please consult a tax accountant with questions; unfortunately, we cannot advise on tax matters.
Individuals enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree in art, or a degree in a field related to their art, are not eligible to apply.
Artist teams/groups are not eligible to apply.
Immediate family members, board members, or employees of the Utah Division of Arts & Museums are not eligible to apply.
Design Arts - Designers working in the fields of 4D design, architecture, exhibition design, furniture design, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, landscape design, packaging design, product design, textile and fashion design, theatrical/stage design (costume, lighting, prop, set, sound), and urban design are eligible to apply.

Performing Arts - Disciplines rotate every three years between music, dance, and theatre. The 2024 focus is dance. Artists practicing in a variety of dance-related performing arts such as ballet, choreography, folk and traditional arts, hip-hop, jazz, modern, tap, and new genres – are eligible.

Visual Arts – Artists practicing in mediums such as clay, drawing, experimental, fiber, glass, illustration, installation, mixed media, painting, photography, plastic, printmaking, sculpture, three-dimensional art, two-dimensional art, works on paper - are eligible. Other eligible fields include experimental/new genre such as new technology, certain digital arts, multisensory works and other artforms that do not fit neatly within traditional categories. Visual art must be a primary, significant, and integral component of the media. Narrative and documentary filmmakers are not eligible.

To be considered, applicants must:

Have created a substantial, independent body of work over at least a five-year professional arts career.
Note: Work produced within an accredited degree program is not applicable toward the five-year period of professional accomplishment.
Have made a recognized contribution to their discipline through public presentation of their work.
Demonstrate a consistent level of artistic ability throughout their professional arts career.
Provide evidence of continued commitment to serious exploration of their artistic form.
Review process:

Applications are prescreened by staff for completion, eligibility, and adherence to published guidelines. Applicants meeting eligibility requirements but whose applications are found to be incomplete will be contacted and given the opportunity to withdraw and resubmit their application. No late applications will be accepted.

Following the application prescreen, the fellowship jurors will review all eligible applications and make final fellow selections.

The Utah Division of Arts & Museums is a state agency involved in public funding for arts and museums. As a public entity, it reserves the right to make final decisions on the use of public funds for projects, programs, acquisitions, commissions, or other activities as deemed appropriate by the Division and/or Board.

Applicants will be asked to provide the following information.
NOTE: Please pay attention to word count requirements.

1. Bio: Minimum of 200 words, maximum of 300 words.
   A professional bio written in the third person. May include the medium you work in, key themes found in your art practice, art-related education, awards, significant past or current projects, where you are from, and where you live and work.
2. Artist’s statement: Minimum of 300 words, maximum of 500 words.
   A statement written in the first person describing your art practice and the overarching concepts behind it.
3. Description of intent: Maximum of 300 words.
   Please describe why this fellowship award is important to your artistic practice and development.
4. Professional CV or Resume: Maximum of six pages.
   It may include the following items as they relate to your discipline:
   • Education
   • Documentation of exhibition/performance history
   • Awards/grants
   • Commissions/collections
   • Publications
   • Gallery/agent representation
   • Reviews
5. Work samples: View specific work sample requirements for each discipline below.
   Note: In the application, there is an area to enter your website or social media artist profile; this is optional – the juror may select to review it or not.

Design Arts Required Work Samples

Design fellowship applicants must include ten uploaded work samples from the past five years. There is an individual attachment limit of 400 MB and a cumulative attachment limit of 800 MB per application on Submittable.

Work sample details:

• Must be complete, finalized works.
• Must be works created in the past five years.
• Each work sample must be unique. Do not submit multiple work samples, or detail images, of the same project.
• May include a mixture of video, audio, images, or other documentation of work.
• Video or audio samples must be submitted via a link to a platform such as Vimeo or YouTube.
• You may include multiple views to show details or the complete location or context of the work; however, note that no more than ten files are allowed.

Performing Arts Required Work Samples

Performing arts fellowship applicants must include five work samples from the past five years. There is an individual attachment limit of 400 MB and a cumulative attachment limit of 800 MB per application on Submittable.

Work sample details:

• Must have a minimum / maximum of 5 work samples
• Must be works created in the past five years.
• May include a mixture of video, audio, images, or other documentation of work.
• Video samples must be submitted via a link to a platform such as Vimeo or YouTube.
• Video samples should be no more than three minutes in length. If your work sample is longer, please identify the three-minute timestamp you wish the juror to review.
• If you submit a work sample as a dancer, it should be easy to identify the applicant. If more than one person is seen in the work sample, the applicant must make clear how to identify themselves for the juror.
• If you are submitting a work sample as a choreographer please note that in the description area.
• In the Submittable form, you will be required to list the title, year completed, identifying information, and timestamp (if applicable).

Visual Arts Required Work Samples

Visual arts fellowship applicants must have ten uploaded work samples from the past five years. There is an individual attachment limit of 400 MB and a cumulative attachment limit of 800 MB per application on Submittable.

Work samples should be:

• Complete, finalized works.
• Works created in the past five years.
• In the Submittable form, you will be required to list the title, medium, year completed, and dimensions of images/videos.

For new media artists submitting videos:

• Video samples must be submitted via a link to a platform such as Vimeo or YouTube.

UA&M staff facilitated and recorded an online information session on February 1st. In this session we walked through the full application.

To view this video please click here.

Submissions open: January 27, 2025

Submissions close: March 7, 2025

Artists notified of results via Submittable: April 18, 2025

Session 1 - Taxes for Artists, Freelancers and Creative Businesses

Click Here to Register

May 1, 2024 from 12 noon - 2 p.m.
Taxes for Artists, Freelancers and Creative Businesses
Presenter - Hannah Cole, Enrolled Agent, of Sunlight Tax

• What can I deduct? Do I bring receipts to my accountant? Is my art a business or a hobby? What is a Schedule C? How do I deduct my home studio?  Why do freelancers have to pay taxes quarterly, and how do I do that? Hannah Cole is a tax expert who specializes in working with creative businesses and artists. A long-time working artist with a high-level exhibition history, and a tax and money columnist for the art blog Hyperallergic, the financial challenges of freelancers and small creative businesses are both relevant and personal to Hannah. She will discuss the basic tax equation, self employment tax and the estimated quarterly tax system, audit concerns for the creative person, and other tax issues specifically relevant to artists and makers, followed by a question and answer period.
  
  Hannah Cole is the founder of Sunlight Tax, which specializes in friendly, informative tax preparation for artists, and engaging, art-world savvy tax education workshops for artist groups, and in empowering creative people to set up for long-term success and take control of the financial side of their careers through her program, Money Bootcamp. She is also the host of the Sunlight podcast, where she talks about taxes, money, and careers for self-employed people who have a big vision for changing the world with their work.

Session 2 - Work of Art: Business Plan Essentials

Click Here to Register

May 2, 2024 from 5:30 - 8 p.m.
Work of Art: Business Plan Essentials
Presented by Springboard for the Arts

• Learn how to prepare a simple business plan, in arts-friendly language, to help you organize all the various aspects of your artistic practice and make informed business decisions.
  
  Springboard for the Arts' mission is to support artists with the tools to make a living and a life, and to build just and equitable communities full of meaning, joy, and connection. Founded as an independent nonprofit in 1991, Springboard for the Arts has an innovative 30-year history of supporting artists making a living and a life and artist-led community development work.

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