Four Reasons to Apply for the Arts Fund Individual Artist Award

If you’re a Santa Barbara resident 18 years or older who wants to make their art public, look no further-the Arts Fund is now accepting applications for its annual Individual Artist Award (IAA). And the best part: All IAA winners and honorable mention recipients will be invited to participate in exhibitions and a public performance at the Arts Fund Gallery (205-C Santa Barbara St.). To enter, visit artsfundsb.org. And for a couple reasons why you should enter, read on below.

1) Because the IAA is one of the longest-running, well-established, and highly renowned juried awards in Santa Barbara. Now in its 20th year, the IAA is decided on by a panel composed of distinguished artists, curators, composers, and educators in Southern California whose names you can list on your artist CV and drop throughout the rest of your artistic career.

2) Because your name will be added to a long list of fellow Santa Barbara-based winners (like Colin Gray, Din Q. Le, Nell Campbell, Dane Goodman, James Connolly, Tonia Shimin, and Ethan Turpin) whose careers were also catapulted into fame and glory-well, at least nudged to the next level.

3) Because winning in your category (graphic communications/print media, music composition, painting, sculpture) means that your wallet will be $2,000 fatter than it was before. In artistic terms, that’s 315 paintbrushes, 100 blocks of versa clay, 126 tubes of cadmium red paint, 41 stone carving hammers, and three copies of Adobe Photoshop software.

4) The art patrons who believe in cultivating creativity, inspiration, and personal expression around town are the same folks shelling out the dough to fund the award. As Director Nina Dunbar notes, “There are fewer and fewer opportunities for artists to receive funding and exhibition opportunities in their own communities. This award helps keep our artists local.”