Introduction
Last year, we asked over 1,200 creative people — artists, writers, choreographers, filmmakers — about their views on applying for things and running open calls. We learned that 80% felt the current system wasn’t working. Meanwhile, nearly half of the 100 organizations we surveyed, including residencies, incubators, and grant-making foundations, said they don’t receive enough applications, and wish their applicants were more diverse.
So, what can be done to make open calls more accessible?
While creative people are yearning for more transparency, as well as feedback on what makes an application successful, we also know that many organizations have little time to think about the functionalities and implications of their selection processes.
With this guide, we aim to help make a dent opening up the existing insular networks of privilege, nepotism, and closed circles of alumni networks & word-of-mouth. We focused on the actual mechanisms that keep some people out and invite others in by breaking down the reasons people didn’t apply, and pairing each one with easily implementable solutions.
This guide is step-by-step provides ways for organizations to assess their current protocols and make them more transparent, accessible, and artist-friendly on an international scale, by providing solutions to the seven main reasons why people didn’t apply to your open call.
In short, we’re here to help you make your application suck less :)
