Apply Now | Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program: Denver

Program presented in partnership with PlatteForum. Denver-based artists are encouraged to apply by January 19, 2021.

Through the support of the Arts in Society, SCFD Denver County, Rose Community Foundation, SCFD Adams County and the City of Denver’s Imagine 2020 Fund, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is pleased to announce the Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program: Denver, presented in partnership with PlatteForum.

The program’s goal is to foster a local community of artists sharing the immigrant experience and provide resources through entrepreneurial training and access to other artists, arts professionals, and organizations. Conducted in a supportive environment with a goal that all voices are heard, the program offers immigrant artists the opportunity to focus on their creative practice and gain support and exposure for their work while upholding their distinct cultural identities.

This is a competitive program open to adult artists from all disciplines (Performing, Literary, Visual, Multidisciplinary, Video/Film, Folk and Traditional arts) based in Denver, CO, and provided free of charge to accepted participants. The program will run from February 2021 to June 2021, with two weekend entrepreneurial trainings and access to one-on-one mentoring and an informal gathering between weekends. 

It will also include a final exhibition with presenting opportunities for all selected applicants, organized by PlatteForum. 

Since 2017, NYFA has worked in partnership with established arts and cultural organizations in partner cities to implement its Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program and tailor it to the needs of each individual community in Oakland, Detroit, Newark, and San Antonio. In each location, the program provided access to artist mentors, art professionals via panels and workshops, and the fundamental principles of sustainability in the arts. During the pandemic, the network has continued to connect via virtual roundtables that are supported by NYFA and organized by Oakland artists and program alumni Jason Wyman and Rupy C. Tut.

Program Dates:

Mandatory Sessions:*

First Weekend Intensive:
Saturday, February 27, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM MST
Sunday, February 28, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM MST

Mid-Program Check-In:
Wednesday, April 7, 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM MST

Second Weekend Intensive:
Saturday, May 22, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM MST
Sunday, May 23, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM MST

Topics to be featured include strategic planning, finance, law, marketing, and fundraising. Additional material will be drawn from NYFA’s popular textbook The Profitable Artist, Second Edition (Allworth Press, 2018). Content is provided with the cohort’s needs in mind.

*Attendance is mandatory to all sessions, so please check your calendar before applying. Denver-based partners will host meetings. All the meetings are planned to take place in person, which may convert to online, according to local and state health guidelines at the time of the program. 

How to Apply:

Application Link: Click here to apply via Call for Entry’s portal.

Application Deadline: Tuesday, January 19, 2021 at 11:59 PM MST.

Eligibility: 

• Live within the seven-county Denver metro area and within commuting distance of Denver**
• Either you and your parents were born outside of the United States or in U.S. Territories including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands
• Refugees are welcome to apply
• You are NOT currently enrolled in a graduate or undergraduate degree program***

**Priority will be given to artists living and working in the seven-county Denver metro area; however the program is open to artists within commuting distance of Denver.

***Applicants must be 18 or older; students who will graduate college before the program starts are welcome to apply.

Guidelines:

For the application we ask you to provide:

• Your long terms goals and why you are interested in applying to this program
• A narrative bio of your professional career
• A link to your website or online presence
• Work samples

Selection Process: The selection process has several phases. First, with the support of local partners, PlatteForum will identify established professional artists from a variety of disciplines—whose backgrounds reflect the applicant pool—to serve as mentors. Once selected, mentors will review mentee applications focusing on the applicants’ artistic vision, resources they are looking for, and career goals. The mentors’ ability to offer the necessary resources and information that the applicant is seeking is taken into consideration. Then both PlatteForum and NYFA will work together to identify the pool of mentees, with the awareness of the cohort makeup as a whole while aligning advantageous pairings of mentors and mentees.

Notification: Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Questions? Contact NYFA at [email protected] and include “Denver” in the subject line for general program questions. Contact Esther Hernandez, Creative Programming Manager of PlatteForum, at [email protected] for any application-related questions.

Testimonials:

I applied for the Immigrant Artist Program to find a creative community locally in Oakland since I felt really isolated in my studio as a traditional painter. During the program, it was the most incredible experience to receive amazing amounts of knowledge ranging from copyright to artist statements, grant writing and so many other topics, during the different programming components NYFA had lined up. The most significant relationship during the entire program was of course with my mentor, having very honest conversations, receiving uninhibited feedback on my work, and also being able to see the art world from her perspective. The icebreaker for my very nervous self was the first day during the “speed dating” format of meeting every single mentor and speaking about my work and what I hope to learn to do during my time in the program in under three minutes. I soon realized that there was a total lack of hierarchy in the program between mentors and mentees which made it even easier to interact and open up with other mentees and mentors. 

Even after the program, I was able to stay in touch with about half of my cohort and mentors through different work opportunities, collaborations, and mutual interests. A significant collaboration that emerged for me from IAP is working with Jason Wyman, who was not even my own mentor, but who has now become a dear friend and also a collaborator on NYFA programs like the video roundtables and the IAP Virtual Art Salon. I would highly recommend the IAP experience and would advise taking full advantage of the time an artist gets with the variety of minds in the room. You meet so many artists who are willing to speak about their experiences, share lessons learned, and make creative bonds with other local artists.

Rupy C. Tut, Visual artist, Oakland, CA, IAP Oakland alumna

We are Thaad and Eden Sabolboro, and together we are the co-founders of Reel Clever Films, a boutique film and and video production company specializing in the documentary style, cinematic approach for film and video. We each had the wonderful opportunity to be selected for NYFA’s Immigrant Artist Program in Detroit within one year of each other. It was a formative and life-changing experience that we are most grateful to have been a part of. Having just arrived from the Philippines in 2014, and having to start over from the ground up, we often felt alone and lacked confidence in trying to establish our professional and artistic identity in the United States. In joining the NYFA IAP program, we realized that we weren’t alone, and that there was a vast network of other diverse artists like us that were also in need of support. The NYFA IAP program sets itself apart with its unique thrust to advancing and supporting artists like us, being the first program of its kind in the art world. We got to form incredible relationships and future collaborations with our peer artists, as well as receive valuable support and professional development from some incredible and award-winning professional artists and mentors. From creating visibility around our work, to accounting and budgeting, to professionally structuring our practice, we received valuable workshops whose teachings have been critical in our growth. It truly was an incomparable experience—we cannot recommend it enough.

Thaad and Eden Sabolboro, Filmmakers at Reel Clever Films, IAP Detroit alumni

This program is made possible with the support of Arts in Society, a collaborative grant-making program that fosters cross-sector work through the arts by supporting the integration of arts and culture into multiple disciplines critical to the health and well-being of Coloradans. Additional support has been provided by Rose Community Foundation, SCFD Denver and Adams Counties, and the Imagine 2020 Fund.

Click here for more information on the Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program. And don’t forget to sign up for the monthly Con Edison IAP Newsletter to receive opportunities and events as well as artist features directly to your inbox.