Kevin Devaney came up with the idea for the FEAST series at the Tannery. Photo by Chip Scheuer.
Santa Cruz artists looking to get their projects funded now have a whole new avenue available to them, through a new program at the Tannery Arts Center called FEAST. The idea is part Kickstarter, part American Idol, part Top Chef: Once a month, eight artists stand up in front of a room of diners and explain their projects. For twenty dollars, attendees will get not only dinner, but the opportunity to vote on which of the eight artist’s projects they believe deserves to be funded. The artist with the most votes gets the entire grant. The amount of money the winning artist receives depends on how many people are in attendance, as the grant money comes directly from the attendees’ fees.
In April, Devi Pride was the winner at the first FEAST event, winning around $700 to fund her documentary on urban farming and agricultural sustainability. Of the seven people she was competing against, one person proposed a public mural, another a mobile lighting rig that would be used to enhance art shows at the Tannery Arts Center.
“It’s open to all artists, all mediums, you don’t need to go through a complicated application process. You literally just need to be able to stand up and for five minutes and convince people that this thing that you want to do is awesome enough for them to be giving their money to do it,” says FEAST organizer Kevin Devaney.
FEAST is open to all, and dinner is donated by local businesses, so very little money is being taken out of the admission fee to cover costs. The dinner for last month’s FEAST came by way of Casa Nostra, Emily’s and Rebecca’s. The next FEAST will be at the Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Art on May 30th at 6:30pm.
“So often in the grant community, if someone isn’t able to get their idea on paper in a way that clearly communicates what’s going on, they don’t get funded. The whole point of this program is to break down that power structure, open it up, and make it a very democratic process,” Devaney says.
If attendance grows, the grant amount could get as high as $2,000, as the Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Art can hold about a hundred people inside and on the patio.
Grant winners are expected to attend the following meeting to show their project to the same people that funded it. What they will show will depend on the nature of the project. If it is shorter, they may show it in its completed form. But in the case of Pride’s documentary, which could take substantially longer than a month to complete, she will likely bring clips, or photos from on location.
“We don’t want them to feel like there’s a time restraint, because that really limits the types of arts we can fund. But we don’t want to feel like we’re just giving somebody a bag of cash—like ‘all right, beer money!’ There’s a give and take here that works for everyone involved,” Devaney says.
The program is based on a similar one called Sunday Soup in Chicago that inspired Devaney. Before moving to Santa Cruz, he did a couple similar events in his hometown North Hampton, NH. Once here, he presented the idea to Kirby Scudder at the Tannery Arts Center, who immediately gave him the go-ahead.
“I just thought it was a phenomenal idea that had so much potential to be a real gift to any community where it was happening. If we’re able to do this correctly every month, it’ll be a huge asset to artists in Santa Cruz, and could really help us be a vibrant arts community, in addition to all that’s already going on,” Devaney says.
Artists interested in participating, should go to http://www.scica.org/ to fill out an application.
