Mini Grants

The Bisbee Arts Commission Mini-Grants program is designed to give money, raised by BAC sponsored events, to Bisbee artists and arts organizations. The goal is to make it easy to get money to help make a great idea happen. The BAC tries to distribute support to a representative cross-section of each of what we see as the major artistic disciplines:

1. Visual Arts: Painting, sculpture, fiber arts, Photography etc.
2. Performing Arts: Theatre, live Poetry, Puppetry, Spectacle, etc.
3. Music/Film/Video: Concerts and recorded media.
4. Arts Education and Children’s Art: Classes, Demonstrations, Workshops, Displays etc.
5. Bisbee Arts Promotion: Programs for Artist promotion, exposure and encouragement.

There are three steps to the mini grant process:

1. Fill out the application which includes four simple parts:
a. Your personal information.
b. Project description
c. Budget

2. Present your proposal in person at the BAC’s October 5th meeting (5:30pm at Bisbee City Hall, 118 Arizona St.). Be ready to answer questions from Commission members.
3. Submit a final report when you complete your project.

In an attempt to address the concerns of some applicants and BAC members about what criteria is used to award these grants, we have included a list of Requirements, a list of Priorities, and a list of Considerations.

Requirements:

(These are the minimum to qualify for the Mini-Grant program. Projects that do not meet these requirements may be supported by the BAC in other ways):

1. The Artist or Applicant must be a Bisbee resident.
2. The primary audience for the work must be Bisbee residents.
3. The project must stand alone as an artist endeavor aimed at a public audience. This program would not pay to provide artistic entertainment for a non-artistic industry convention or event.

Priorities

(These are areas that the BAC may give special consideration to.)

• Children’s programs.
• Programs that build the health of the entire Bisbee art scene.
• Free public access to Bisbee residents.
• Public art.

Considerations

(Covering as many of these areas as possible will help your application.)

 Size of your audience. The more Bisbee residents that get to enjoy your project the better.
 Artistic merit. Tell us why/how your project will enrich our community artistically.
 Will your project have long-term impact or be on-going?
 If your project will continue into the future, do you have a plan to make it financially self-supporting? Please explain how.
 What other financial, material, and personal support have you enlisted to help make your project a success?
 Will your project be possible without a Mini-Grant from the BAC? What if you are not granted the full amount you are asking for?

The Budget you outline may be the largest deciding factor in the success of your application. The BAC feels a duty to administer these funds responsibly. We need to clearly understand how, why and to what effect this public money will be spent. Spend the time to figure out how much each line item in your budget will really cost. Padding your budget may hurt your chances, but under budgeting is a more common error people make in applying for grants. A clear and realistic estimate for what you need has the best chance of getting approved. Don’t pad your budget to hit the $1500 Mini-Grant limit. By the same token don’t limit your project to the Mini-Grant – there are other funds out there! The best applications have more than one means of support.

Final Report

Included in the application is a Final Report form. This is a quick description of how your project went for the BAC’s records. We want to see that your project was completed and how you actually spent the money. This is a critical step to insure that these public funds are being spent as they were intended. Failure to submit a complete final report will disqualify you from applying for future Mini-Grants.

Please help us do a good job helping Bisbee artists. Your suggestions, quality applications, and help spreading the word will make this a successful program. We are all in this together.