What is Art Eat Up?

Art Eat-Up is a food, drink and entertainment event with a twist; for a small donation, guests eat a delicious meal, enjoy good company and musical entertainment, and vote for the most worthy art proposal on the menu that night. All profits collected go to the winning artists to realize their project, which will be displayed at the next Art Eat-Up event. It is a great way to network, meet new people, have fun and provide support for a local art project. Art Eat-Up provides individual grants for artists, connects artists to each other and to the greater community and promotes the artistic livelihood of our community.

Here's some more info.:

~Art Eat-Up is a grants process that gives an artist an unrestricted financial resource to realize a visual arts proposal, whether it is for one piece or an entire body of work. The grant may provide materials, equipment or even living expenses while the artist completes the project.

~Art Eat-Up is grassroots funding at its best: donations for the community dinner go directly to funding art-makers whose proposals draw the most votes from the diners. The process is purposely simple: Anyone can submit a proposal to Art Eat-Up. Community participation in the grant selection process is the key: through this process we hope to stimulate and support experimental, critical and imaginative projects that may not be eligible for formal funding.

~Art Eat-Up connects artists with artists, artists with the community, and the community with each other during Art Eat-Up dinners. It provides artists the opportunity to begin marketing their work before it is made. It creates momentum and awareness for art projects promoted during the event and possibly realized with the help of the Art-Eat-Up grant.

~Art Eat-Up was inspired by FEAST in Brooklyn (Funding Emerging Artists with Sustainable Tactics): http://feastinbklyn.org/.

How does it work??

Any person can attend an Art Eat-Up event. Entrance will provide each person with one ballot and dinner with musical entertainment and beverages. Diners view a variety of proposed artworks and art projects. Each diner can cast one vote on the project they would like to see awarded a grant. After dinner, ballots will be counted and the art proposal receiving the most votes will be awarded the money raised through entrance donations (minus expenses and a portion to second and third prize).

The grant money is awarded to the winning artist without limitations on how they use the grant money. Artists can take home the money that same evening. Documentation of the finalized project will be on display at the next Art Eat-Up, as well as other venues, including the web, informing the community of the progress and completion of each winning project.

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