Make A Proposal
Guidelines and Ways to Approach A Proposal
Suggested Steps for writing an IWT: AIR proposal
1. Select Topic: Reflect on something, off the top of your head, that seriously disturbs you. This can be a minor inconvenience or something with global consequences. It could be as simple as removing your shoes for TSA security checks, ambiguous parking restrictions to something far-reaching, like educations or healthcare policies. It helps to be as specific as you can but if that isn’t possible you can start with a general idea and filter it specifically during the development process.
2. Get Focused: The next step is to do a little research. Uncover divergent views, ideas and debate surrounding your topic. Once again if it is specific, have a strong opinion and know about your topic already this stage goes fairly quickly or might be unnecessary. If your topic is more general you could take a while to narrow down the focus. During this stage you will have a chance to read different documents, critiques, see what is already being done and said regarding your subject. If your topic is more open then you might want to visit the USA.gov which provides general information on a wide-range of topics. Reading about pertinent issues might help you narrow your focus. The focus stage is basically a research stage and will streamline your issue and make it manageable. If you would like to visually see how this stage might look come view “PRACTICE”, a performance piece that lets you watch the process of idea-exploration visually. “PRACTICE” will be occurring in the gallery on an ongoing basis during this exhibition. Please see the calendar for specific dates and times.
3. Select Agency: Find the agency, federal, state or local, that is responsible for your issue. Depending on your subject it might be handled at all three levels and even by multiple agencies. During this stage you will pick the agency that is either most appropriate for your specific project, most interesting to you or where you feel you can make the largest impact. Select this agency or department and then do a search to find who is actually responsible for that. There are many government pages on the web and it is doesn’t take long to locate the office that handles your specific issue.
4. Devise Plan: This is where you can get creative. What can you specifically offer the agency, what are your creative talents. How would having you as an Artist in Residence make a difference and have the most influence. This can take many different shapes. It can be extremely specific and focused or it can be broader. You may need to be in the agency to make decide on specifics and that is okay to state in your proposal. Either way it is likely to change over time so write what you think you would like to do, what shape it might take and what outcomes you project. If you are having a block writing this part, look at some of our other proposals or work backwards from the outcome and decide how you could get to that outcome.
5. Write Proposal: Once you have finished steps 1-4 it is time to put your ideas on paper. Keep in mind that proposals take many different shapes. Each project is original and has very different parameters. Don’t be timid, get something on paper and revise it as time goes. You can also attend one of our writing workshops if you are having a problem at any stage.
Apply
Proposals are still being accepted. Please submit your application by email to info@theiwt.com using the downloadable application forms.
Download application form as PDF
About IWT
As self-declared Artists in Residence for the US Government, the Institute for Wishful Thinking (IWT) believes that the community of artists and designers possesses untapped creative and conceptual resources that could be applied to solving social problems. More