Artist case study: Raising money for the “fresh air” project
Published: Tue, 03/16/21
Let’s take a look at how John Halpern did it.
John is an artist (film, sculpture and performance) and here he explains how he raised money for a public project. It was a sculpture, a performance, about fresh air, and he explains how he got it sponsored - how he got a truck for free, why the companies liked it, how logos were visible and more.
He describes how he created a $5000 fee for himself and got the rest of the materials covered. He even had a PR company reach out to him after they saw his press attention and asked him to collaborate with them about an initiative for fresh air!
Watch about 1 minute or a little more if you want to:
“I filled up this glass cube on the back of a pickup truck, having obtained the agreement and sponsorship from the guy that owned the glass truck that was being rented by the vodka company to advertise the vodka.
So I repurposed this truck, and the benefit to the guy who sponsored it was that they got to be involved with a great public art piece that thousands of people interacted with.
The way it worked was that people would approach the glass container, take a mask, put the mask on their face, inhale oxygen from the plants, and exhale carbondioxide back into the chamber so the plants could breathe the carbondioxide. Then on the next day that air that was created overnight between the plants and the human beings on let’s say Monday… on Tuesday people could breathe that air.
The logo of the company was placed on the truck.
I found a number of other sponsors - for example:
The New York Botanical Garden provided all the plants…
I had a minimum salary of USD 5,000 that the City of New York’s Parks Department gave to me, because they loved the project. It was used to celebrate the 23rd Earth Day Anniversary…
And eventually this became a thing which was surrounded by people wherever it went (...)
So around the Fresh Air Project, I identified a community of support. I identified a community that cared a lot about this topic, and wanted to be involved with this dynamic public art project on the streets of New York.
Eventually what happened was that a very big PR company saw television and print news about the Fresh Air Project, and they commissioned me to campaign for the Clean Air Act.”
That’s wonderful but how will YOU find and cultivate this ecosystem of support around your project?
Come to the free training I’m doing next week and find out:
>>> Click here to register automatically for this free training (just one click and we will set you up) <<<
It’s going down on Monday the 22nd of March 2021 at 1:00pm EST
If you’ve never had a sponsor before, now is the best time to dip your toe in the pool because patronage has steadily risen around the world in the past three years, from USD 834 Billion in 2018 to USD 878 Billion in 2019 (globally).
After investing so much of yourself in your art, you deserve the dopamine splash of checking your inbox one day and seeing the confirmation of your first patron donation - like this:
And now some tough love:
If you write to the wrong patrons (or write to the right patrons in the wrong way), instead of that donation confirmation, what you see in your inbox will be a humiliating rejection.
It’s crucial that you understand two things:
How does a wealthy patron choose which projects to give to?
How do you find what kind of projects a particular patron has funded in the past (so you can see whether they would be a match for your dream project)?
I’ll cover both on 22nd of March 2021 at 1:00pm EST.
It’s free. It’s eye-opening. You should come.
Brainard
PS: There will be a replay, but only for subscribers who register. So click that link even if you can’t make it to the live session.