Prizes, fellowships and awards in the arts have become a cottage industry. In literature, I've received prizes, fellowships and awards. I've not received them after applying. Note that word. Applying! Most require an application from the writer or artist, and therein is the rub.
Many of these are money-making affairs for the organization giving them out. For example, in the early days of the Internet, when I hosted the first comprehensive website for screenwriters and playwrights on the World Wide Web, I could have made a few bucks by sponsoring a contest. Say I held an online screenwriting contest, which were growing in popularity, charge a twenty dollar entry fee (undercutting the rate to assure lots of entries), say I only got 100 entries (500 would be more like it), and gave a thousand dollar prize. I'd make a grand profit.
In other words, more than support of the arts is at work here. And a business consultant once told me, the quickest way for a new arts organization to gain credibility is to give an award or have a contest.
Of course, the pitch is that awards and such move your career forward. Well, yes, it does give you something to brag about, to put in your resume or pitch letter. For example, I won an international play contest with several thousand entries. Hot stuff! However, I did not get a single production from this prize. Not one. However, I must say, grants and awards let me get through much of the 1980s without traditional employment, a godsend for a serious writer. I got lucky.
Yes, winning also helps one's ego, giving a certain validity to one's work. But many of these affairs are hyped to high heaven, defining an arts landscape that is false. To begin, the arts are not competitive. It is always, always, comparing apples and oranges when you begin judging works of art and literature. And it always boils down to opinion, to the values of a judge or panel of judges.
An example. I was one of three judges hired by the Illinois Arts Commission to award ten fellowships to scriptwriters, among 73 finalists selected beforehand. Okay. Each of us read them and selected our own top ten, then compared notes. We did not agree on a single top ten writer. Think about that! NO AGREEMENT WHATEVER. We were all "qualified" judges. But we were very different: myself, a practicing playwright and screenwriter; a black woman theater professor; and a gay man artistic director of a theater company. A politically correct panel! And we couldn't agree on anything.
What does this say about the intrinsic value of a script or work of art?
If you get the idea that these awards are crapshoots, you are right. So let's own up to it. Make awards a crapshoot literally.
So I propose this.
Get rid of all prizes and awards that requires application from the writer or artist. If organizations want to give awards, fine, but no one applies for them.
Instead, hold art and literature lotteries. Invite entrants and pick a winner from a hat. Do this at every level, from local to state to nationwide. Let arts lotteries support the arts.
I think the result would be a more dynamic, more risk taking, more vibrant arts scene because "winners" would be divorced from arts politics and fads, from academia, from bureaucracy.
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ARTS LOTTERY.
Many of these are money-making affairs for the organization giving them out. For example, in the early days of the Internet, when I hosted the first comprehensive website for screenwriters and playwrights on the World Wide Web, I could have made a few bucks by sponsoring a contest. Say I held an online screenwriting contest, which were growing in popularity, charge a twenty dollar entry fee (undercutting the rate to assure lots of entries), say I only got 100 entries (500 would be more like it), and gave a thousand dollar prize. I'd make a grand profit.
In other words, more than support of the arts is at work here. And a business consultant once told me, the quickest way for a new arts organization to gain credibility is to give an award or have a contest.
Of course, the pitch is that awards and such move your career forward. Well, yes, it does give you something to brag about, to put in your resume or pitch letter. For example, I won an international play contest with several thousand entries. Hot stuff! However, I did not get a single production from this prize. Not one. However, I must say, grants and awards let me get through much of the 1980s without traditional employment, a godsend for a serious writer. I got lucky.
Yes, winning also helps one's ego, giving a certain validity to one's work. But many of these affairs are hyped to high heaven, defining an arts landscape that is false. To begin, the arts are not competitive. It is always, always, comparing apples and oranges when you begin judging works of art and literature. And it always boils down to opinion, to the values of a judge or panel of judges.
An example. I was one of three judges hired by the Illinois Arts Commission to award ten fellowships to scriptwriters, among 73 finalists selected beforehand. Okay. Each of us read them and selected our own top ten, then compared notes. We did not agree on a single top ten writer. Think about that! NO AGREEMENT WHATEVER. We were all "qualified" judges. But we were very different: myself, a practicing playwright and screenwriter; a black woman theater professor; and a gay man artistic director of a theater company. A politically correct panel! And we couldn't agree on anything.
What does this say about the intrinsic value of a script or work of art?
If you get the idea that these awards are crapshoots, you are right. So let's own up to it. Make awards a crapshoot literally.
So I propose this.
Get rid of all prizes and awards that requires application from the writer or artist. If organizations want to give awards, fine, but no one applies for them.
Instead, hold art and literature lotteries. Invite entrants and pick a winner from a hat. Do this at every level, from local to state to nationwide. Let arts lotteries support the arts.
I think the result would be a more dynamic, more risk taking, more vibrant arts scene because "winners" would be divorced from arts politics and fads, from academia, from bureaucracy.
SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ARTS LOTTERY.
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