ArtsCareer December 2011 eNews: Tips for crowdfunding success, plus win one of 7 x $30 Dymocks vouchers
Although it’s almost time to start hanging up your stockings, check out this bumper packed eNews on crowdfunding - it might just get the cash flowing after all the present buying!
In this issue Alan, from creative crowdfunding platform Pozible, goes through the basics of crowdfunding and shares his tips for success. Also performance group 56 inch circus and dancer Liesel Zink share their crowdfunding experiences.
Plus don’t miss our announcement of the ArtsCareer Photography Competition winners and find out how you can win one of the 7 x $30 Dymocks vouchers we have to giveaway!
Hope you have a great festive season and we’ll be back in the New Year!
The ArtsCareer Team
In this issue:
• Latest Career Poll results
• Tips for crowdfunding success
• Feature Practitioner | Blog
• ArtsCareer Competition winners plus win a $30 Dymocks voucher
Image: The crowd at The Nauru Elegies: DJ Spooky performance,
part of Experimenta Utopia Now: International Biennial of Media Art,
Shed 4, Docklands, Melbourne 2010. Image courtesy of Scott Sandars and Experimenta
In our last poll we asked how you fund your arts practice and the overwhelming majority of you said you go it alone, without any support. We hope this will change eventually to more of you receiving funding and hope this issue will give you some ideas for other ways to support your practice.
New Career Poll:
Our next issue will focus on Marketing so we want to know what topics you would like to know more about. Click on the links below to vote.
Writing a marketing plan
Conducting market research
Networking
Working with the Media
Creating a website
Blogging / Social Media
Writing for an online audience
Writing a CV / biography / artist statement
Other: email artscareer@visualarts.net.au
Looking to crowdfund but not sure where to start? Alan from creative crowdfunding website Pozible, shares his top tips for success.
ArtsCareer: What is crowdfunding?
Alan: Crowdfunding (sometimes called crowd financing, crowd sourced capital) has been defined as the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money and other resources together, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organisations.
Crowdfunding occurs for any variety of purposes, from disaster relief to political campaigns, to artists seeking support from fans, to funding a start-up company.
AC: What does Pozible do?
A: Pozible is a crowdfunding platform and community for creative projects and new ideas.
The platform has been specifically developed for artists, musicians, filmmakers, journalists, designers, social change makers, entrepreneurs, inventors, event organisers, software developers and all creative minded people to sell or pre-sell items related to their project.
The platform is also a social media tool to build awareness of projects, whilst raising the necessary funds to make something possible.
AC:What sort of projects crowdfund through your site?
A: Pozible invites projects that are creative in nature to be showcased on Pozible. We are open to the entire creative industry and cover a broad mix from music to software development and art festivals to short film productions.
Pozible is not a platform to raise funds for charitable purposes and nor is it a platform to raise capital investment. The outcome(s) from Pozible projects are creative in some form or another.
AC: Is there a common thread between the projects that have been the most successful at crowdfunding through Pozible?
A: We get asked this question a lot and I recently addressed this question in our blog. To me, the most successful project creators have found a unique way to share their talent and dreams in a way that truly reveals the excitement, passion and possibility behind them.
AC: What should our readers do or think about before they start to crowdfund?
A: Crowdfunding is very different to the traditional methods of raising funds for creative projects. It is centred around engaging your fanbase, participating in social networks and involving people interested in your ideas.
Each crowdfunding campaign must start with a group of people that will back your project financially and/or spread the word about your project or ideas. Before you start, it's important to know exactly who these people are.
Also, before you start, look around and check out successfully crowdfunded projects in your industry and find out their key success factors. Your aim should be to do it better than they did.
AC: Could you give us six tips for crowdfunding success?
A: Here are three tips for the Planning phase and three tips for the Campaigning phase:
Planning:
1. Project Outcome
Focus on the project outcome as opposed to the costs and expenses when preparing your project. Demonstrate your talent and passion for your work and describe your dreams for the entire project.
2. Followers
Decide how your supporters and your promoters can follow your progress so they can get an insight into your work; learn about your stories along the way and be involved in the process.
3. Funding Target & Market
Ensure that you have set the minimum financial goal required to get the project off the ground. Pozible operates using the all-or-nothing funding model, which means if you do not raise the funding target, no funds are collected for your Pozible project. Most people support at the $25-$100 level - be careful with the rewards you offer people who donate at this level and aim to provide attractive & unique rewards to exceed your funding target. Knowing your target market for these rewards is also a key factor in crowdfunding success.
Campaigning:
4. Engagement
Build your audience and continually update them with what is happening with your project. You are inviting people to be part of something and you are sharing an experience they will appreciate. Word of mouth is the most important tip in crowdfunding success. Give people something to talk about because Pozible has provided the social tools to make it very easy for promoters to share your message.
5. Learn from others
You are not the alone and you are not the first person to try crowdfunding, so investigate previously successful projects and understand how others have run successful campaigns.
6. Appreciation
This might seem obvious, but never forget to show your appreciation. A personal message of thanks and recognition can go a long, long way. Your project supporters are also your true fans - if you take care of these people, they will take care of you.
7. One additional free tip: Have fun!
http://www.pozible.com/index.php/blog/home
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The crowdfunding experience
Performance group 56 inch circus recently raised $3770 for an upcoming project, through the creative crowdfunding site, Pozible [www.pozible.com]
The support will go towards developing a recycled exercise bike into a “human powered piece of circus equipment”, with the final outcome resulting in an “esoteric circus, full of aural surprises, extraordinary feats of skill underpinned with superb comic timing”.
We caught up with 56 inch circus’ Nicci Wilks who told us why the group went down crowdfunding route and why she thinks they were succesful, raising over $700 on top of their initial target of $3000.
ArtsCareer: What do you do and what do you love about it?
Nicci Wilks: We are circus artists and theatre practitioners. Sometimes we love it and sometimes we hate it. That is the great challenge of being artists, to keep finding your way through.
AC: Could you tell us about 56 inch circus?
NW: 56 inch circus is a performance group made up of four artists. Our passion is for creating work that takes circus and music to new dimensions and to explore the humor in contemporary work.
AC: Why did you decide to crowdfund to raise money for the project?
NW: We were excited by the idea of being proactive about raising funds for our work. We are committed and passionate about what we do and finding funds through grants can be a very disheartening experience. Crowdfunding gives you a sense of value for your work and can only have a positive outcome. It's also a quicker process than most funding channels.
AC: What did you do first?
NW: We looked at a lot of other projects on the site [www.pozible.com] and then worked out what would be possible for us to achieve with our available time and resources.
AC: Why do you think the crowdfunding was so successful?
NW: Because we had a large pool of people we could access through social media and contacts within the industry.
AC: Do you have any tips for crowdfunding success?
NW: Go for it. Give it a go. Spread the word about your art.
AC: Finally, what’s coming up next for you?
NW: Developing the bike project and then realising the full-length show and installation in 2012.
To find out more about 56 inch circus and their upcoming work, check out their page on Pozible: www.pozible.com/index.php/archive/index/1141/description/0/0
Useful websites
Social Media Examiner’s 11 Tips for Crowdfunding
www.socialmediaexaminer.com/11-tips-for-crowdfunding-how-to-raise-money-from-strangers
croudsourcing.org's 10 Crowdfunding Tips
www.crowdsourcing.org/document/10-crowdfunding-tips-an-easy-way-to-raise-money/6754
Image: Chelsea Mcguffin, Vanessa Tomlinson, Nicci Wilks. Photo: Sean Young.
Featured Artist: Liesel Zink
Contemporary dancer Liesel talks about her practice and why she decided to crowdfund for her next project, fifteen.
ArtsCareer: What kind of dancing do you do and why do you enjoy it?
Liesel Zink: I am a contemporary dancer. I really love contemporary dance because it’s not limited to a particular vocabulary, but instead allows you to bring your creativity and individual expression and perspective to the work.
I have recently found myself interested in the cross between dance and drama, where movement can express things words cannot and words can express things that dance cannot.
AC: How did you get into dancing?
LZ: I grew up in Bowral, a country town in NSW, where my mother dragged me to Saturday morning ballet classes!!! I never used to enjoy it, but when I was about 12 I had an incredibly inspiring ballet teacher who made me aware of the challenge in dance, that you can never be ‘finished’… you can always push a little harder, extend a little longer, jump a little higher.
I then studied a Bachelor of Fine Arts at QUT in Brisbane and completed an honours research year at Expressions Dance Company, where I looked at how we communicate through body language and dance.
From there I collaborated with a lot of interesting, independent artists from a variety of different disciplines, which opened up my practice to a whole new world of exciting possibilities!
AC: You also teach dance and choreography – what encouraged you to start teaching as well?
LZ: I enjoy sharing skills and experiences with the broader arts community and in turn appreciate the energy and insight the students bring to what we work on. I believe generosity and sharing is so important in the arts community regardless of where you are in your artistic career.
AC: Is it difficult to balance your time between the two?
LZ: I think balance is one of the hardest things to obtain in an artistic practice. Artists have to balance a lot of things: their physical practice, administrative practice, life, health and fitness, social life, finances, meetings, professional development, and most importantly, they need to allow for space to be able to let new inspiration in. I find it a constant challenge, but also nice to have my focus ever changing… sometimes!
AC: Do you still take dance/choreography classes yourself?
LZ: Yes. I take dance classes with Expressions Dance Company as often as I can. It is important to keep a level of physical fitness and experience the choreographic vocabulary of other dancers and teachers.
AC: Tell us about your upcoming project, fifteen?
LZ: fifteen is a site-specific dance work that critically dissects principles of body language and proxemics to question human behaviour in the city.
Twenty audience members will sit in amongst the action in an urban thoroughfare, wearing headphones that transmit a live soundtrack to the dance.
They will watch dance emerge and disappear in the environment around them whilst also watching the reactions and behaviours of the general public who will unwittingly become a part of the performance itself.
I am fascinated by the despondent behaviour of city goers in pedestrian traffic and how we deal with the invasion of people into our ‘intimate zone’ (15cm radius around the body).
So many of life’s most painful and beautiful moments are completely exposed in the city, yet as a collection of strangers we can remain completely impassive.
I want to create a work that brings to light ‘the ignored’ and encourages audiences to look at a familiar environment in a new and more inquisitive light.
fifteen will premier as a part of Melbourne’s Next Wave Festival and it is incredibly exciting to be working in Melbourne’s public space!
AC: What made you decide to crowdfund the project? Have you done any crowdfunding before?
LZ: This is my first time using crowdfunding. I find it provides a professional but creative base in which to connect with businesses and peers who want to become almost ‘patrons’ of my practice.
AC: Do you have any advice for anyone looking to crowdfund their next project?
LZ: Be creative when thinking of little gifts to give to donors – it’s a great incentive to donate.
Maintain a personal touch when it comes to approaching people whom you think will want to donate to your project.
Featured Blog: The Electric Pencil
The Electric Pencil's aim is to be a doorway to the world of 'electric' tools for writers. Written by writers for writers, the focus is on guiding the more technophilic to find information and to promote themselves with the help of technology.
Image: fifteen. Photo: Fenlan Chuang
Last month we ran our annual photography competition, the winners of which each receive a copyright fee and have their images displayed on the ArtsCareer website for one year. We had so many great entries it was hard work selecting the winners but after much deliberation we were able to narrow it down! Here are the winning entrants alongside the art form their image will be found under.
Alex Davies [Drama]
Rachel Main [Media]
Kate Baker [Music]
Lorraine Biggs [Visual Arts] (pictured)
Congratulations to you all!
Photographs will be displayed on the ArtsCareer website from the beginning of next year.
Win a $30 Dymocks voucher
To say thank you for your continued support throughout the year we’ve got 7 x $30 Dymocks vouchers to giveaway – one for each artform represented on the site.
To go into a draw for your artform just email your name, address, artform and one sentence about what you do to artscareer@visualarts.net.au by midnight on Sunday 18 December 2011.
We’ll make the draw on Monday 20 December and let the winning entrants know by email.
Happy Holidays!
Image: Lila Meleisea Collecting Sounds in The Vale. Photo: Lorraine Biggs.
