How a $40k Guggenheim grant changed things for Marsia
Published: Fri, 07/19/24
Updated: Sat, 07/20/24
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One of the services I offer, once a year, is help with the Guggenheim application.
I worked in detail, one on one on a Guggenheim Grant with five artists that recently received it, so I know what a winning application looks like. (To find out my fee structure, please reply to this email.)
Marsia Alexander-Clarke, who won the award in 2018, is one of these artists.
I talked to Marsia on the phone after she got the grant. I decided to share our conversation with you because I want to take you behind the scenes, and show you something you normally never get to see: how grant winners really use these awards to elevate their work.
Here is a transcription of our talk.
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Brainard: What will you do next?
Marsia: I’m doing another video symphony, based on the poetry of Pablo Neruda. I grew up in Chile. I did one last year, so I want to do a series of symphonies, and display them as sculptures in a circle in a large room, as a kind of meditation.
Will the grant change things for you?
It’s mainly the confirmation of my work. I work in a studio, mainly alone, for years on end, and finally getting a larger institution to affirm my work felt very important.
I once got a small grant, but this is the big one and maybe the best and most prestigious of awards. It was a thrilling and wonderful experience to get it.
Anything to say to other artists?
I think the important thing is to have strong work and original work, and the work needs to be connected to art history, the wonderful mother and fathers of our past, in terms of art. I think maturity helps a lot and being older, and bringing work to fruition.
Did you think it was futile or that it would never happen? I know you applied to this grant before.
Yes, it can be very lonely for sure.
Plans for the future?
I want to create a new video installation with the funding, and I will be building a new structure to put it into.
I will also travel to Chile to visit Neruda’s home and visit my childhood home. Last time I went was 1989-90. This time I will go by myself and do my own kind of wandering and see my old home and a few people.
Winning a prestigious grant like this is such a milestone. I’m curious, how will you celebrate?
A few friends will come over to have dinner.
Anything else you want to say before we wrap up?
Thank you very much for your help with it. You made some very important recommendations to the proposal. That was a good move. And the security that you read it and approved of it.
The security?
Yes, you know the art scene in NYC and it felt a little stronger with your backing and editing of my proposal. I think you are doing an incredible job encouraging people!
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I remember that phone call like it was yesterday.
It has to be, I think, one of the deepest joys in life for a grant writer - to hear that thrill in your applicants’ voices after they win a life-changing grant like the Guggenheim.
Anyway, let’s fast-forward a bit and look over her shoulder as Marsia puts the funds to use. Did her plans bear fruit?
I know she travelled right away to see Pablo Neruda’s home and to visit with old friends there in Valparaiso in central Chile, just like she planned.
She is also had two museum shows at the same time, last year, one at The Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH) and anothe at The California Museum of Photography in Riverside California!
And here is an update she sent to friends asking about the grant:
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“Dear Friends and Acquaintances,
Many of you have been asking me how my Guggenheim project, OJOS PROFUNDOS (profound eyes), is coming along. It’s been a difficult year for me and although I have been working steadily I have had some unfortunate interruptions: a seemingly never ending saga in pursuit of a building permit, and most unfortunately the death of a very dear friend.
The silent video component of my work is blossoming in new and surprising and very exciting ways. I have not had a chance yet to work on the choral aspect of my work.
I commissioned Anna Ancheta to compose a song from some chosen phrases from Pablo Neruda’s early poems. She composed several amazingly beautiful songs which her wonderful choir sang for me in early March as I video recorded their expressive faces singing. What a treat this is!
As I have done before, I will be reconstructing this video recording to create a new entity through the use of fragmentation and repetition.
The final presentation will include two multi-channel silent video installations along with the re-constructed choral work.
I look forward to sharing this work with you at that time. I will be sending announcements early next year.
I hope you are also finding excitement and fulfillment in your work. Wishing you a wonderful rest of the year,
Marsia Alexander-Clarke”
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I know how lonely an artist’s inner life can be. Your ambitious dream project is just that - a dream, a fantasy - to the rest of the world. And every rejection, every grant you do not win, makes it seem even more futile, like it would never happen.
But it can happen. It does happen.
All it takes is one “yes” and then it snowballs from there.
The Guggenheim Grant turned Marsia’s dream project into a reality, and it can do the same for your dreams:
Her series of video symphonies based on the poetry of Neruda? - below;
CANTOS - still from video
ESCUCHANDO - still from video
Commission Anna Ancheta to compose the music for your video symphony? - check.
And just look at the gorgeous little house she built with the funds to house her art installations:
TEMPLO OSCURO - Video Temple
It’s your turn to bring your ambitious dreams into reality.
You owe it to yourself to apply to this year’s Guggenheim Grant.
Prove to everyone who has ever doubted you that you have the courage to apply.
The deadline for the application is approximately September 17th, 2024.
Reply to this letter to ask any questions and also to find out the fee structure of hiring me to work with you.
I work with you step by step for every element of this grant including image selection and looking closely at your art, the same way I did it for Marsia and my other winners.
I only work with ten artists on this, so the sooner you make your decision the better chance you have at getting a spot. (6 spots are taken already)
Sincerely,
Brainard
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