Funding possibilities for Residencies

Mary asked me to provide some information regarding the grants that participants in the international residency at Chateau d'Orquevaux had received. First, the residency itself has some money available for grants. At the time I was there (November '24), everyone received some money from this fund. Many residencies have similar funds available for some or all of the participants. Many residencies offer a small number of "fellowships" which often offset the entire cost. Other participants (including me) received grants from other sources. Mine was from my local arts council, and I am sure that many arts councils have similar programs. This one is called "Artist Assistance Grants," and award grants up to $2000 per artist on an annual basis. The two grants I received covered nearly half the cost of the residency. I don't know the specific sources or sizes of the grants others received. One painter, very prolific in both painting and grant writing, who sends out multiple grant proposals every month, was fully funded through grants. One very young woman was fully funded through, believe it or not, a GoFundMe campaign! The downside of course was that near the deadline, she was afraid she was going to fall short and have to cancel, but she made it! Crowdfunding--through GoFundMe, Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, etc is a very real and very viable way to raise funds for a creative project. They are not magic, they require lots of work to let people know what your project is, why it should be funded and what funders will receive in return. In the early days of Kickstarter, my wife raised $50,000 to produce a documentary on the polish/french composer Chopin. This required DAILY involvement with the platform and potential funders. Hope that some of this info is helpful.