 | Individual Artist Arts Commentary
Perspectives on the Arts | 
Activity Period: January 1 through December 31. All Fellowship funds must be expended during this period.
Award Amounts: PCA awards these Fellowships in fixed amounts of $5,000 to eligible Pennsylvania artists of exceptional talent to enable them to pursue their artistic goals. Description: Arts Commentary: Perspectives on the Arts fosters nonfiction work which educates the broad general public about the contemporary arts. They also promote arts commentators' endeavors to reach new or larger audiences. The Arts Commentary program provides awards of $5,000 without matching requirements. Arts Commentary recognizes work in all media and is open to the full range of Pennsylvanians producing arts commentary. Journalists, broadcast and electronic media professionals, documentary filmmakers, arts, scholars, arts educators, and non-profit professionals are encouraged to apply. Arts Commentary is a project-based program that: - Concentrates on the contemporary arts or issues of significance to the arts today. Projects concentrate on the arts and issues of the last 20 years.
- Explores many perspectives of the arts. Projects may focus on any artistic discipline or combination of disciplines, or address the arts in general. They may also examine popular culture as it relates to the arts or explore social, political, and economic issues that impact the arts.
- Educates the public by interpreting the significance of the arts and examining them form a critical or historical perspective. This perspective is humanities-based. The humanities are stories of human struggle and success, conflict and community, rooted in history, literature, and other fields of knowledge, including the history and criticism of the arts. An examination of ideas, themes, and questions about the arts through a humanities lens fosters a more meaningful understanding of the arts by the general public.
- Lead to presentations for the public. The presentations may take a variety of forms. These include publications, such as magazine or newspaper articles, books, and exhibition catalogs; media projects, such as radio programs, documentary films or videos, CD-ROMs, and web sites; and educational programs for the public, such as speaking engagements and exhibitions. Projects may focus on one presentation or encompass several presentations.
The program supports projects that plan and/or implement public presentations. Funds from Arts Commentary may underwrite research as part of planning if research is integral to developing a public presentation.
Examples of Past Projects:
- An investigation of three contemporary artists and the impact of Pennsylvania's coal-mining history and heritage on their work, through gallery talks at local historical sites and a feature story in a magazine.
- A documentary film about Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and actor Jason Miller and his significance to the people of Scranton, Miller's hometown.
- An exploration of African American children's rhymes and chants -- their musical structure, function, and meaning -- through a series of essays, discussions with high school students, and a forum at a public library.
- A radio documentary series profiling composer, conductor, and education Leonard Bernstein, the aesthetic, political, and social questions that confronted him, and his response to these questions over his long career.
The program does NOT support projects that:
- Are solely historical.
- Are devoted exclusively to creating and producing art, such as the writing of creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, or plays
- Promote scholarship rather than public education.
- Focus on research that does not directly lead to a public presentation.
Review Criteria
Artistic quality of the work samples
- Artistic quality is defined as the ability to communicate ideas and information deftly and creatively to members of the broad general public, especially those new to the arts, and to educate them about the arts.
Merit of the project
- Do the project's content and format address the needs and the interests of the target audience (audience as defined by the applicant)?
- Can the project significantly increase the target audience's understanding and appreciation of the arts?
- Will the public presentation be readily available or accessible to the target audience?
- Will the project advance the applicant's work as an arts commentator?
Project Management
- Does the applicant have a workable plan and schedule of activities?
- Is the budget appropriate for the project?
Work Sample Requirements
Work samples for Arts Commentary reflect the applicant's ability to relate education, nonfiction work to the broad general public and span all types of media -- written work, audio, film, video, and multimedia.
Applicants are urged to submit entire works as the jury may elect to view different parts of the work submitted; however, no more than the number of materials required will be reviewed by the jury. Both work samples must be in the same median and current work, completed after August 1, 2000.
To have audio, film and video samples returned, send a self-addressed stamped envelope with adequate postage. Written work samples will not be returned.
Audio Work Samples Accepted Submission Formats
Video Work Samples Accepted Submission Formats
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