#application tips

Applying to a fanzine can be a pretty nerve-wracking experience, especially if this could potentially be your first zine! This set of tips has been made in the hopes of easing any potential anxiety and making the application process smoother for everyone!

Please read on to find out more and see some cute little puppets!

Discover tips for better communication! From word choice to tone - make conversation your tool. 🔊🗨️ #Communication #Tips #tricks #ArtOfConversation #Community #articulation #application #interview

The way you express yourself – your choice of words, your tone, and your articulation – can have a significant impact on how you are perceived. Here are some tips and tricks you can apply to positively influence the psychology of the person you’re speaking to: Use positive reinforcement If you repeat positive terms or phrases used by an interviewer, you not only build a stronger connection with…

If possible, sit down with your parents/guardians/financers of your college education and ask them to be very honest about your budget for college. I didn't find out until after applications and offers that I didn't have a college fund at all. If I had known that before applying, I probably would have made some different choices. So if you can, I'd highly highly recommend asking what your college fund situation looks like, how much they're willing to pay, etc. It will save you a lot of heartache if you know where you can afford before you spend all this time (and money) on applications.

Asks: Portfolio Edition

Some quick tips about portfolios:

There’s no “right” or singular way to present your portfolio. A portfolio can be a Google Drive folder with your 10 best pieces, or it could be an entire professional website with a range of categories and hundreds of works.

The idea with portfolios is to showcase your range and style in addition to your samples. Think of it this way: if you were applying for a position at a job, and you were told to bring in a folder of works to your interview, what would it include? The recruiter has already looked at your resume, i.e. the key items that make you a strong candidate. But what additional background can you provide that represents your overall artist / writer personality?

Of course, the number of works in your portfolio will depend on your overall inventory of works; Most importantly, the items represented in your portfolio should be what you believe to be your best work. You don’t want sketches or drafts in there, but complete pieces that you are proud of.

If you want something in your portfolio to stand out, just organize it that way. For example, if you have certain items that you couldn’t submit as samples but want to highlight, here’s a few ways you could do that:

If your portfolio is a Drive Folder, create a sub-folder called “Highlights” and place them in here.

If your portfolio is a website, your best pieces should probably be part of the image carousel or home page, or more easily accessible via the main categories.

If your portfolio is something like an AO3 account or a Tumblr art tag, where you can’t re-organize items in a preferred way, you could indicate your top pieces in the additional notes section of the application.

Again, when it comes to applications, you probably couldn’t have “too many” pieces, as long as they represent your strength and range of skill (especially in a way that you may not be able to show via samples). And just to clarify: your zine samples can also be in your portfolio. Especially if you have a website or AO3 account as your portfolio, because it’s not like you can remove items from there just because you used them as samples. For writers, your portfolios could even include the “full version” of samples that you had to excerpt (For example, you could copy-paste a segment of a longer fic into a Word Doc as sample 1. At the end of sample 1, you could say “Complete work can be found in portfolio, [here]” and include a hyperlink. 

One thing we would advise is that you don’t want your portfolio to be too sparse; after all, it’s there to provide further background. An additional 3 or 4 pieces probably wouldn’t give us that much of a better idea, so we’d say at least go for about 10 pieces in your portfolio (excluding any repeating samples). Writers could probably get away with less (for example, 6 or 7) since written works can be on the longer side.

We hope these tips and ideas can help you decide how to organize your portfolios! As always, feel free to reach out to us for further help / clarification, and we’d be happy to help!

Hello all, I have had the opportunity to be apart of a mod team for two zines that have gone through their application phase and thought I would pass on some tips that might be helpful to any writers who would like to apply to one, or for those who have applied and been rejected. 

Remember these suggestions are mostly from my personal experience and there is no ‘guaranteed method’ to make you get accepted. All I can say is keep trying and hopefully these tips improve your chances. Suggestions are below, in no particular order.

We’re sharing insider tips for your NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Application.

The NYFA Grants team has created a series of blog posts with information to help you prepare the materials needed for your application(s). In this edition of The Art of the Application, we’ll share tips on writing a Work Statement and guidance in helping you decide if you should include a Cultural Statement.

How Do I Write a Work Statement?

This may be a new term to you, but the concept will be familiar. The Work Statement is like an Artist Statement, in that it should describe the primary interests of your practice. Whereas an Artist Statement is often broad and overarching, your Work Statement needs to be specific to the work you are presenting within your application.

Your NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship Work Statement can be up to 100 words in length and is required. It may seem daunting to distill your work down to 100 words or less, but trust that it’s a worthwhile challenge! However, be mindful when you condense your statement into a short format; don’t let your ideas devolve into vague sentences or generalizations. Instead, hone in on some of the key factors that inspired the work in your application, and describe how these elements relate to some of the larger ideas within your artistic practice.

As an exercise, consider this question: How would you explain your work to someone who has never experienced it before?

Keep it simple. It’s best to avoid language that is overly theoretical or philosophical. You don’t want to make your statement so complex that someone has to read it two or three times in order to understand it. Keep in mind that the panel is reviewing hundreds of Work Statements. Statements that speak clearly and provide concrete examples allow the panel to access your ideas more quickly. And remember, with only 100 words, you should never stop at the first draft!

Should You Supply a Cultural Statement?

Another aspect of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship application is the Cultural Statement. This statement gives applicants the opportunity to describe how their practice relates to, or is rooted in, a cultural technique, tradition, or community.

The Cultural Statement should give the panel insight into a specific cultural community or practice, and highlight any techniques that may need further context.

Describe how your background in a cultural community has shaped your work.

Share any relevant cultural history or stories that influenced your work.

Provide more detail about the techniques you use, where they originated, and why you choose to continue this tradition.

It’s good to take advantage of any opportunity an application gives you to describe your work, but you should only submit information that is appropriate to your practice. Supply a Cultural Statement only if your connection to a cultural community, technique, and/or tradition is integral to your work. If not, don’t spend your time trying to argue an angle. Instead, focus your attention on strengthening other components of your application. Keeping your materials relevant, informative, and focused is key when submitting an application to an artist opportunity in general.

Depending on the discipline you’re applying in, you may have the opportunity to also provide a Technical Statement and/or Excerpt Explanation. These statements will allow you to go into further detail, so don’t feel like you have to say everything in your Work Statement or Cultural Statement.

For more information about the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, visit our website and view our Fellowships FAQ.

- Hannah Berry, Program Associate, NYFA Grants

NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships are administered with leadership support from New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Find out about additional awards and grants here. Sign up for our free bi-weekly newsletter NYFA News to receive announcements about future NYFA events and programs.

Recommendations - App Tips Summer Series

We get a lot of specific questions about the letters of recommendation, so let me try this post Q&A style.

What questions will you ask my recommender about me?

How do the candidate's performance, potential, background, or personal qualities compare to those of other well-qualified individuals in similar roles? Please provide specific examples.

Please describe the most important piece of constructive feedback you have given the applicant. Please detail the circumstances and the applicant's response.

Who should I ask to write my letters of recommendation?

Ask people who know you well in a work context. In most cases, one of the two should be your direct supervisor. The other can be someone you’ve worked with in the past or you are working within a different capacity now. Depending on where you’re working, you can also consider a client, an investor or someone from a partner organization. Recs from professors are typically not as helpful in our process unless you’ve worked with them in a significant way.

It is a good idea to think about how the two recommendations can complement one another by drawing on different examples or aspects of your background.

What if I am not telling my employer that I am applying to business school?

We understand, and we do not want your situation at work (promotions, bonus, etc.) to be negatively affected. If you’re in this situation you can ask someone from a prior job, or someone that you work with outside of your organization to write for you.

Does it matter if my recommender is an alumna/alumnus of HBS? How important is her/his title?

We get this question all the time, and you should always choose people who know you well over someone who may be an HBS alum or have a big title. Remember, we are trying to get to know YOU, not your recommender.