KOI call for proposals

KOI is back! Save the date: April 9, 2011. More details coming soon, but if you’re an independent artist interested in presenting a project for community funding, we’d love to have your application. See below!

Kitchen of Innovation (KOI) invites artists to submit project proposals for its next networking fundraiser to take place April 9, 2011. The deadline for submissions is
FEBRUARY 25, 2011.

KOI is an open-ended experiment that invites DC culture-lovers to invest in artists’ creative processes. It is a fundraising event that gathers like-minded people and promotes artists and initiatives. We are looking for projects that may not comfortably fit into conventional funding grants and artists who are not receiving steady income from galleries, theaters, universities, or non-profits.

KOI encourages creativity and investment: people who attend pay admission, share a meal, each artist gives a brief presentation, everybody votes, and the winner gets the money.

At the next KOI there will be 7 to 8 artists presenting their projects. If you are someone working with performance, sculpture, sound, visual arts, dance, puppetry, theater, web-based art, installation, or any combination thereof, please tell us about your plans. We are looking for projects by independent artists, meaning people who are neither in school nor working as full-time teachers. Recent graduates, adjuncts, and freelance artists are strongly encouraged to submit their ideas. We seek to fund proposals that are in need of creative investors and enrich DC’s artistic landscape.

We will ask the artists who fit KOI’s criteria to present their proposals in person in March and then choose people to present at our next events (there are 3 more KOI fundraisers planned for 2011). The first KOI (held in October 2010) generated networking opportunities, contacts and ideas for artists and participants, plus two artists split the income of $1000.

If you want to be a part of KOI, send answers to these questions to kitchenofinnovation@gmail.com

Include your name, email address, phone number and mailing address:

1. What is your project? (please answer in 150 words or less)

2. How will your project benefit people besides yourself? (answer in 150 words or less)

3. How would you spend the money received from KOI? (using 150 words or less)

4. Tell us if you are NOT available any of these dates/times: March 4 between 6-9 p.m. and Sunday, March 6 between noon-3 p.m. These are the dates we will meet with artists who fit KOI criteria and hear more about the project proposals.

The deadline for sending in your answers to the 4 questions: February 25, 2011