Over the years, the Firefly Arts Collective (FAC) has been proud to provide grant support to Firefly artists to enable them to express and fulfill their varied creative visions. These grants are intended to support and promote radically-expressive, community-based, interactive and/or collaborative projects that help define and shape the creative core of the event.
The Legacy Grant is provided to support existing projects that have previously appeared at Firefly. Art can be exposed to many elements at Firefly — mud, rain, sun, and most of all, people — and this grant is designed to provide funding to help with wear and tear produced by this exposure.
Review Criteria
Proposals will be evaluated based on the following factors:
- Thoughtfulness: how well thought out is the project’s relationship with participants?
- Creativity: how original and awe-inspiring is your project?
- Feasibility: how feasible is this project?
Advice for Prospective Artists
After many years of reviewing Grants and seeing what succeeds in the woods, the Art Grant Committees have collated the following tips:
- We do not fund art intended primarily to be enjoyed by the camp showing the art. Make sure to explain how your project can be experienced by everyone at firefly, not just your camp.
- We are not inclined to fund ball pits unless the design is significantly creative, impressive, and different from what has been done before.
- Please note that electronic and mechanical projects have a high rate of failure in the woods. If your project involves soldering, software, or moving parts, please put extra effort into convincing us the project will succeed.
Grants are currently available for the amount of $100, $300, $500, or $1000
Summary of Deadlines
- TBA: Legacy Grant applications open
- Apr 30: Legacy Grant applications due.
- May 28: Legacy Grants awarded.
- July 4-9: Firefly Event
- TBA: Grant Documentation Deadline
Grant Disbursement Schedule
- 75% – once the signed contract is received.
- 25% – after Firefly, confirmed site clean-up, and documentation received
Once the signed contract is received, you will receive 75% of your awarded amount; the remaining 25% will be distributed once the project is completed and documentation is received, (see question #13 of the Application). Your project will be considered to be complete once proof and documentation have been delivered to, and reviewed by, the Art Grant Review Committee.
Submitting Your Application
Please submit your application as a PDF file via our grant application web portal.
There’s no standard format as long as you answer all of the required questions below! Please do NOT include any identifying information about the artist — our committee process is screened so that all applicants are anonymized. Your account provides all of the information we need.
A note about tickets
In addition to the donation of your time and efforts, all attendees and their helpers must apply for their own tickets to the event. If an artist or a mission-critical team-member is put on the waitlist, one (1) ticket will be allotted to the art project to guarantee that it can be realized at Firefly.
- Am I required to register for a ticket? Yes! All participants in the Firefly Arts Festival must register for a ticket.
- If my grant proposal is accepted will I still have to pay for my ticket? Yes! All participants are expected to pay for their ticket.
- What if my project needs more than one person to execute it? Will my entire group be guaranteed tickets to the event? If the grant recipient or a critical team member is put on the wait list, each grant recipient can request one (1) discretionary ticket. The ticket may be allocated to any individual on the grant team (not just the contact). Please contact grants@fireflyartscollective.org for discretionary tickets.
Art Grant review committee
In order to create an impartial review, applications will be blinded before they are submitted to the Art Grant Review Committee. The committee members will score each proposal based on the criteria listed above.
Questions
Feel free to reach out to us at grants@fireflyartscollective.org if you have any questions!