I’m loving this Lorna’s Laces yarn. It’s so softy softy, but it’s not making up for the fact that I’m well behind schedule, which means I’ve got a couple full days of knitting before my V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N!
Today I got to observe the review panel for a Kansas Arts Commission. It was very interesting and not a little harrowing. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see any of the proposals for the first half of the day, which included the grant’s top marks. But I did get an overall very positive response, and some feedback which should help me refine my narative and proposal if I don’t make it through this round. Sadly, he legislature pretty much obliterated the KAC’s budget for the year, and although I got pretty good marks, I’m not nearly high enough in the scoring to have much confidence. At the end of the day, they tally up all the scores and give you your ranking. Awards are based entirely on points and applicants aren’t participating in the review process in any way, but it’s still gratifying to hear the discussions. The panelists were really dedicated and articulate, so I loved hearing their views/criticisms of projects.
The experience kind of transported me back to high school speech tournaments. All of the panelists/judges get score sheets with several different scoring sections and points values assigned to each. The judges give you points, some with comments, some without, and you try to suss out where you went wrong. Of course, there’s always one that thinks you’re brilliant and one that thinks you’re meh, so you have to kind of read between the lines. I glanced over the notes I got, but I knew I had to rush back for the Earth Scouts visit, so I didn’t fully absorb them. We can request a copy to review later, which I will definitely do so I can work on my weak spots.
Part of me lives for this shit–being graded, revising, tracking my improvement. But the other part of me, the bigger part, the part that’s always broke and short on time–that part just really wants the grant so I can get to work.
I know grant writing needs to be a solid part of my future, so I’m going to plan to attend these reviews whenever I can, even if they’re not grants I’m trying for. I need to learn how all of this business works so we can afford to keep making work and continue with cool collaborative & community projects. Go art!