Musochat is awesome. It’s a weekly twitter chat for the new music crowd, discussing issues that matter to us. Sometimes they’re straight up artistic issues, and sometimes they’re more about business-y how-to-survive-while-doing-this-stuff kind of things.
Tomorrow night I’ve finally caved and am hosting Musochat (the hosts rotate every week). I’m going to be asking questions about Applying For Things(tm). I don’t want to focus on giving how-to-apply tips, in part because musochat is about asking questions, and in part because that subject has been done to death.
I’m going to ask people about their own experiences, and about how they, as artists, decide what to apply for, how to apply for it, and how they feel about the whole experience afterward. After all, most applicants for most things get turned down most of the time. That never feels good.
It is, though, literally my job to make the experience of applying for stuff better, whether or not you win or lose. So I want to hear about what it’s like for artists tomorrow night largely because I’m in a position to help. The people who run grants, residencies, and awards wake up every day and go to work to try to help artists. But there’s a lot of discomfort around these experiences that either doesn’t make it back to the people in charge, or doesn’t help to design processes any better. I’m hoping to learn some things tomorrow night that can help to change that.
So, if you’ve applied for some stuff and want to share your experiences, good or bad, or just hear what it’s like for other artists, join us tomorrow night, 10/30/2016, on Twitter, following #musochat, at 9 PM Eastern.