[TheForge] Grants?

[ries]

No, there have been NO federal grants to individual artist for about  
20 years.
There are sometimes small state grants, but almost always they are  
given for specific projects- teaching kids art, or putting on a play.
I am not aware of any grants, especially at the federal level, that  
would pay for setting up a shop.

There are SBA loans- I had one once, to buy a building. Getting it was  
no different, and in fact, harder, than getting a normal bank loan.  
You needed lots of proof of assets, income, profit and loss  
statements, and so on.

Now is probably the hardest time to get any type of loan in 50 years,  
but especially a business loan, where you are not using real estate as  
collateral.

What I, and most metal artists I know, have done, is used commercial  
work to build my shop.
I would find jobs, get a 50% down payment, and use that money to buy a  
tool to do the job.
A $500 job, way back in 78 or so, bought me a 4x6 bandsaw. Another  
similar sized job paid for a drill press. The more equipment and  
experience you have, the larger and more ambitious jobs you can do.
I have always done work for contractors, architects, and interior  
decorators, doing work that normal fab shops considered too fussy,  
complicated, or unusual. Custom lighting, signage, seating, store  
displays, architectural details, railings, fences, you name it-  
architects and decorators are always designing stuff like this that  
cannot be bought, and that most shops will just refuse to bid.
The low end, commodity stuff is not worth trying for- there is always  
another guy with a mig welder and a chop saw who will underbid you on  
square tube railings, spray painted black.
You have to be able, and willing, to do the weird stuff.

Ries


On Mar 6, 2009, at 11:00 AM, Jonathan Barnhart wrote:


I've been trying for a long time to set up a shop, but something  
always happens financially to keep me from moving forward.  Someone  
suggested that i should start looking for grants.  I tried looking  
around on the net and so far they mostly seem to be for non profit  
organizations.  Does anyone here have any experience with grants and  
if so is there any such thing as grants for individual artists these  
days?



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Ries Niemi
Industrial Artist
http://www.riesniemi.com/