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In the Spark Award application, we ask that you upload a bio and artist statement. These are essential summaries of your personal and artistic background, written in narrative form. This is an opportunity for the applicant to provide information about themselves that is not clearly identifiable or apparent in the other materials of the application. When composing these short texts, try to be clear, succinct and to the point.
The artist bio is a short text where you provide biographical information about yourself as an artist, such as where you grew up and currently reside, where you went to school (if applicable), any accomplishments, and other biographical information that is relevant to your artistic career.
Generally, bios are factual about you as an artist, while artist statements are about the ideas, concepts and techniques of your practice.
Find more tips and examples in this short guide to developing your bio and artist statement, created by the Maryland Institute College of Art’s Career Development Center: [Download PDF]
The Spark Award application limits the Artist Bio to 2,000 characters, including spaces.
The artist statement is distinctly different than the artist biography – it focuses on the how’s and why’s of your creative practice:
Below are some helpful questions to consider when beginning to craft your statement:
To get started, you can ask a friend to interview you, asking these questions and/or others, or use another method that might work for you!
Sarah Hotchkiss wrote this helpful essay assisting artists in the process of writing an artist statement.
The Spark Award application limits the artist statement to3,500 characters, including spaces.
More tips are posted on our blog here.
Read the information on the Spark Award page and preview the application in the guidelines linked on the website.
