Spark Award Application Tips & Resources

• Read the guidelines carefully to understand if this opportunity is the appropriate one for you. We have put great care into creating a program that is accessible and simple to navigate. In our effort to be as transparent as possible about the program goals and process, our guiding materials include all the relevant information.
• Don't wait until the last minute to start your application! Rushed answers often come across as less considered and more unclear.
• Write clear and concise answers that address all relevant aspects of the question. Consider avoiding "artspeak", exaggerations, flowery statements, and generalized language. Focus instead on expressing yourself in a direct and simple manner.
• Avoid relying heavily on AI tools in the preparation of your materials. If you have chosen to utilize AI tools to assist you, make sure that your individual voice and perspective is still represented.‍
• Ask someone to read through your application draft to make sure that you have gotten your ideas across clearly and effectively. Avoid typos, spelling mistakes, or grammatical errors.

• Don't assume the reviewers are familiar with you or your work. Provide context and basic information where possible and appropriate.
• Check that your website and hosted links are active and in working order prior to submitting the application. If your website is outdated, consider omitting the link from your application (it isn't required)!
• Be mindful of your social media presence. Do not include social media handles that are private or that provide a lot of personal and irrelevant information. Ensure that you are putting forth your most professional self in all the materials and information you provide.

Ready to get started with your application? Read the information on the Spark Award page. You can preview the application in the guidelines linked on the website or start your application in the Grants Portal.

In the Spark Award application, we ask that you provide a biographical narrative and an artist statement. These are essential summaries of your personal and artistic background composed in the first person and in narrative form. This is an opportunity to provide information about yourself that is not clearly identifiable or apparent in the other materials of the application. When composing these short texts, be clear, succinct, and to the point.

In short, the biographical narrative is about you and the path you took to becoming an artist, and the artist statement is about the work you make.

Biographical Narrative

The biographical narrative is a short text where you provide personal information about yourself, such as where you grew up and currently reside, where you went to school (if applicable), what led you to become an artist, or any other biographical information that is relevant to your artistic career and might not fit comfortably in other parts of your application.

This space is not intended for a standard bio that is a summary of your professional CV. Do not write this text in third person.

Generally, bios are factual essays about you as an artist, while artist statements are about the ideas, concepts, and techniques of your practice.

Find more tips and examples in this short guide to developing your bio and artist statement, created by the Maryland Institute College of Art's Career Development Center [PDF].

The Spark Award application limits the Biographical Narrative to 2,000 characters, including spaces.

Artist Statement

The artist statement is distinctly different than the biographical narrative – it focuses on the how's and why's of your creative practice. Below are some guiding questions to consider when beginning to craft your statement:

• What discipline do you work in?
• What themes and concepts are you interested in exploring in your practice?
• What is your process for creating new work?
• Who or what has influenced you (genre, tradition, method, etc.)?
• How has your art practice evolved over time?
• What is important to you when making your work?
• What are you responding to with your work?
• What are you currently curious about and where might you be headed with your work?

To get started, you can ask a friend to interview you – asking these questions and/or others – or use another method that might work for you!

Sarah Hotchkiss wrote a helpful essay assisting artists in the process of writing an artist statement: How to Write an Artist Statement (The Creative Independent).

The Spark Award application limits the artist statement to 3,500 characters, including spaces.

Ready to get started with your application? Read the information on the Spark Award page and preview the application in the guidelines linked on the website.

Your resume/CV is a tool that helps reviewers understand the evolution of your artistic career to date — it will be carefully reviewed to fully assess eligibility, career stage, commitment to your discipline, audience engagement, and future potential. The Spark Award application limitsthe resume/CV upload to 5 pages maximum in PDF format.

The Career Spotlights are a list of 5 achievements that you regard as highlights of your career to date. What you choose to include in this section might look different for each artist based on geography, discipline focus, life events, and career trajectory. This is an opportunity to provide a personal view of your career accomplishments.

Preparing an Artist Resume/CV

In order to best represent the evolution of your creative career, this document should provide a comprehensive overview of the presentation of your work, tracking the growth in scope and caliber of the opportunities you have had over time:

• You should include an overview of past and upcoming exhibitions, commissions, acquisitions, screenings, grants or awards, residencies, or other relevant activities. Visual artists should list an exhibition history that separates out solo from group exhibitions.
• Clearly state the year and location in which the activity occurred.
• Do not include general employment history or other information unless it is pertinent to your artistic practice. This is not the same as a resume you submit for a job opportunity: tailor it to this specific opportunity (in this case, an application for a midcareer art award) – include relevant information that expands the reviewers’ understanding of your professional art career.
• Information should be accurate, current, and free of technical and factual errors.
• Details in the resume/CV are subject to verification.
• Do not list trainings, awards, and accomplishments prior to age 18.
• Formatting should be simple and not overly-designed. Applicants are discouraged from including images in their CV document.

Additional resources for putting together your artist Resume/CV:

If you're wondering how to get started on your resume or CV, we recommend reviewing one of these external resources:

> Our colleagues at the MN-based Jerome Foundation have created a helpful video tutorial of the preferred information and format of the Artist CV that is also what we recommend following in your Spark Award application (this is not required). Cue start at 3:54, “What to include in your CV”.

> Our colleagues at Creative Capital have compiled a handy list of some of the information that is advisable to highlight in your resume (the list has been edited down to showcase the info most relevant to visual artists). This list is brought forth as a recommendation and resource, not a requirement:

● Contact Information: This includes your name, mailing address, phone number, email address and website.

● Achievements: List the most recent events first and work backward in chronological order. Include the year, exhibition/event title, location (gallery, publisher, museum or organization), city and state.

● Exhibitions: create two categories: solo/two-person exhibitions and group exhibitions. Consider including the curator’s name.

● Collections: List corporate collections, institutions and well-known individuals who have collected your work. Avoid listing works owned by friends and relatives.

● Commissions/public art projects: List the title of the commissioned work or public project, date, site and sponsor/producer.

● Awards and Honors: List recent awards first, working backward in chronological order. Include project grants, prizes won in competition, artist-in-residence programs and fellowships.

● Related professional work: List work that relates to your profession, such as teaching positions, lectures given, curatorial projects, films, adaptations, installations or recordings on which you have assisted/performed, etc.

● Bibliography: List all publications in which you have been mentioned or reviewed, and any published articles that you have written related to art.

● Education: List education credits in the following order: any degree you are currently a candidate for; graduate degrees earned; undergraduate degrees earned; other institutions of higher education andnotable artists you’ve studied with. As a reminder, current art students (Associate, Undergraduates, Graduate, Low Residency) are not eligible to apply for the Spark Award.

You are welcome to use another formatting of your choice, these resources are offered as guidance but are not a requirement.

The Spark Award application limits the resume/CV upload to 5 pages maximum in PDF format.

Selecting Your Career Spotlights

In the 2026 Spark application, we ask that you list what you regard as 5 achievements in your creative career to date. We realize these same accomplishments are likely to appear on your resume/CV. Our intention is not to duplicate your efforts, but rather to provide the reviewers with a sense of what you regard as your greatest career accomplishments:

• This might include particular exhibitions, the completion of a major project, the inclusion of your work in a collection, a commission, a presentation, an honor or award you have received, a publication, a teaching position, or other professional opportunity.
• You do not need to list these spotlights in a particular order.
• For each entry, include a brief description of the opportunity and when/where it took place (if relevant).
• Follow the format of the following examples:
  • "Exhibition Title", Solo exhibition at ABC Gallery in Bend, OR, May 2019.
  • The commission of Titled Project for XYZ space, completed in June 2023.
  • The addition of the series of 123 paintings to the LMNOP Collection, January 2021.

• What you choose to highlight in your Career Spotlights might look different than other applicants due to your geography, discipline focus, life events, and career trajectory. This is an opportunity for applicants to provide a personal view of their career accomplishments.

Ready to get started with your application? Read the information on the Spark Award page and preview the application in the guidelines linked on the website.

The work samples you provide are the most important part of your application. They demonstrate to the panelists the unique aspects of your creative practice and original artistic voice. We've compiled some tips and resources to follow as you prepare your materials for your Spark Award application:

• Review the Spark work sample requirements carefully in the guidelines and/or application prior to finalizing your work sample selection: You may submit either 10 image files or 6 media files (video/audio) of up to 3 minutes each (~18 minutes total). To submit a combination of image and media, you may provide 5 images and 3 media files (~9 minutes total). Each sample must represent one distinct artwork or project. 1 sample = 1 single work. Samples must represent a range of work created in the last 10 years. Half of the samples must have been completed in the last 3 years (this can include works in progress). Images of 2D works must represent a single view of the work per upload. Images of 3D/Installation projects can include composites or multiple views of the same piece.
• Provide work samples that you consider the best examples of your creative practice and which demonstrate your individual artistic voice over the last 10 years.
• Choose samples that demonstrate your original work: avoid including examples in which you are interpreting, translating, or performing the work of others. AI-generated or augmented visual/image work samples are not permitted. The one exception is work from artists whose continued practice explores and interrogates the uses of AI in meaningful and deliberate ways. In such cases, applicants must articulate the ways in which they employ AI in their work in the narrative of their application and the relevant 'work sample information' field.
• Provide samples of work to which you have the rights.
• Submit high quality documentation – the work is well-lit, the picture is stable and in focus, the audio is clear, etc. Reviewers will most commonly be viewing your samples on personal computers. Some tips for documenting your work can be found here and here [PDF].
• For Sound and Video artists: When choosing cue points, consider what is the most engaging point of the piece(s). Bring the reviewers into the most compelling moments within the first seconds of viewing. This is not necessarily the start or end of a piece. When excerpting a longer work, provide contextual information in the 'work sample information' field.
• Test your video/audio links prior to submitting your application to ensure they are not broken.
• Provide passwords so reviewers can access samples hosted by a third party (i.e. Vimeo, Google Drive, etc.). There is a field in the application that prompts you to enter any password.
• If you choose to share a Google folder or Dropbox: ensure that they are accessible to 'Anyone with a link' for the duration of the application process (until November 2026).
• Ask a friend or colleague who is familiar with your practice for feedback on which work samples you're submitting.
• Make use of the 'Work sample information' field to provide essential information and context for each sample. Do not assume reviewers recognize the venue, curators, etc. Do not paste links to more information in this space.
• Your work samples should confirm and strengthen the story you are relaying about you as an artist in the application. They should relate directly to what you've discussed in the biographical narrative, artist statement, narrative questions, and CV.
• If you are a multi-disciplinary artist, only provide work samples within the eligible discipline categories you are applying for this year (visual arts).