The Bay Area is home to some of the finest artists in the country, who are often invited to teach in programs as far away as New York. For the first time, there is a local program committed to joining these artists with students and enthusiasts from their own communities. The Bay Area Masters Series is devoted to offering students an experience of artistic growth comparable to a BFA program. Each class aims to provide a unique approach to this growth, one engendered in the views of a nationally regarded artist.

Nancy Mizuno Elliot
Artist, arts administrator and grant reviewer

Funding Strategies for Visual Artists:
The Lowdown on Artist’s Grants and Public Commissions
Saturday, August 12, 10:00 AM—1:00 PM, $45

The Bay Area is home to many noteworthy and provocative public works of art. Have you ever wondered how artists are selected to present works in public spaces? How they secure the funds to create the work? Do you have an idea for a work of art that you would like to present in a public space, and need financial support to create it?

There are many local and national organizations that award opportunities, commissions, and grants to create art for public view. Competition for such support is often fierce, but research, preparation, and an understanding of the selection process can be the difference between a successful proposal and one that is barely considered.

In this lean, mean three-hour workshop, Nancy Mizuno Elliott will talk about how to get that competitive edge when submitting grant proposals. She will share her insights as a grant recipient, grant panelist, and arts administrator. Topics she will address will include research and resources, writing to a specific audience, crafting multi-layered proposals, presenting your ideas to a panel, how to transition from studio artist to public artist, gaining experience, finding your niche, and thinking beyond murals. At the end of presentation, Nancy will invite students to pitch their ideas in order to receive individual feedback.

Nancy Mizuno Elliott has experience in arts funding from every conceivable angle: She is a nationally exhibited fine artist, an experienced arts administrator and a sought-after panelist for grants review. Recently, she completed a public arts project sponsored by the Market Street Art in Transit Program Kiosk Poster Series, administered by the San Francisco Arts Commission. Last Spring, she gave away over 1000 hand-made butterflies to visitors of recreation centers located in Latino neighborhoods of Oakland. The project, entitled Pura Vida, was funded by the City of Oakland. The City is also supporting Squawk!: Art Inspired by Oakland Renegade Poets, mixed media paintings exhibited in various Oakland Public Libraries. The City of Emeryville selected her to participate in its Art Along the Avenue program. Her site-specific installation inhabits an unoccupied storefront on San Pablo Avenue until September 2006. Lastly, she has been chosen by the Alameda County Arts Commission to be included in its rotating art collection. Her work will be shown in various county buildings, beginning with the newly constructed Juvenile Justice Center located in San Leandro. The work will illustrate a wide variety of Alameda County poets including text from Juvenile Hall youth.

Her work has been recently selected for the Alameda County Art Commission’s Art Purchase Award. Past work was purchased for exhibition at Highland Hospital and a newly constructed AIDS research facility in Richmond.

Nancy has extensive experience in arts administration. Most recently, she was the Exhibitions Director at Richmond Art Center. She was also Operations Manager of Berkeley Symphony Orchestra; Administrative Director of Contra Costa Civic Theatre; Gallery Manager of Berkeley Art Center; and Board Treasurer and Open Studios Chair of Pro Arts. While at Richmond Art Center, she served on the City of Richmond’s Public Art Committee. She has also been a review panelist for the City of Oakland in various categories including Individual Artist Project, Organization Support, Temporary and Permanent Art Work, and New Creative Partnerships. She has served on a panel for Alameda County Art Commission and Marin Art Council. And has juried exhibitions for Berkeley Art Center, Richmond Art Center, CCA, and Mill Valley Artisans.

Other honors include C-00 Film Grants, Studies Abroad Fellowship, and residencies at The White Colony in Costa Rica, Can Serrat in Spain, Ragdale, and Hambidge Center.