What would you say to win $10,000 in six minutes? Well, the people behind 32 different ventures across Arizona are going to have to figure that out pretty soon when they participate in Arizona Commission on the Arts' Arizona Art Tank: 2015.
Split into four different regions, these participants from all over the state will have exactly six minutes to pitch their art-focused venture to a live audience and a selection of experts, including state legislators, local business and arts leaders, and artists for the chance to win up to $10,000 in seed-funding for their venture.
See also: Sprawlr, a Digital Magazine For All Things Arizona, Launches December 15
Two years ago, the Arizona Commission on the Arts designed Arizona Art Tank to invest in the top creative ventures in each of the four designated regions as a "fast-pitch" event that allowed the applicants to directly interact in person with the people awarding the grants. After the inaugural Arizona Art Tank: 2014, the Commission invested $124,000 into 21 artistic endeavors throughout the state, including Arizona State University School of Art, Rising Youth Theatre, and Phoenix Center for the Arts.
Because of the success of the first Art Tank and the projects it funded, the Commission decided a second event was in order.
After the application process, which required applicants to take a Compatibility Quiz to make sure the grant would fit their organization or project, complete in-person and online information sessions, and watch online webinars coaching on strong pitching strategies, the final participants were chosen.
But compared to having only six minutes to stand in front of a crowded auditorium and a panel of experts to convince those people that the venture the applicants are passionate about deserves $10,000, that application process must have been a cakewalk.
Though the panel will be deciding on the four top-scoring projects to award between $5,000 to $10,000, the audience will have the chance to award a $1000 Audience Award sponsored by APS to one venture at each of the four regional events, which are all free and open to the public.
This year, eight ventures were chosen from the Eastern Arizona region, which includes East Maricopa and Gila counties. Participants vying for the grant money include the Musical Instrument Museum, a project looking at women in Arizona's theaters, and Arizona Dance Education Organization. Arizona Art Tank: 2015, East will be held at Chandler Center for the Arts, 250 North Arizona Avenue, on Monday, January 12, at 6:30 p.m.
On Tuesday, January 13, at 6:30 p.m., nine ventures, including Ballet Tucson, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, and a project called The Mariachi Miracle, will be giving it their all at Star Studios, 16 Erie Street, in Bisbee, in Arizona Art Tank: 2015, South. The Southern region includes Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz, Graham, Greenlee, and Cochise counties.
Sedona Arts Center, a project aimed at young choreographers, an open-air cinema in the Verde Valley, and three other ventures from the Northern Arizona region, which includes Mohave, Yavapai, Coconino, Navajo, and Apache counties, will be presenting on Thursday, January 15, at 6:30 p.m. at Coconino Center for the Arts, 2300 North Fort Valley Road, in Flagstaff during Arizona Art Tank: 2015, North.
The Arizona Art Tank events will come to an end on Tuesday, January 20, with nine participants from the Western region, including the newly-launched Sprawlr magazine, Arizona Association of the Deaf, and several downtown Phoenix-based theatres, pitching their projects at 6:30 p.m. at Peoria Center for the Performing Arts, 8355 West Peoria Avenue in Arizona Art Tank: 2015, West.
To see the full list of participants pitching in all four events, see the next page.
Eastern Region:
- The Bridge Project: Women in Arizona Theatre - The Bridge Project: Women in Arizona Theatre
- Arizona Dance Education Organization (AzDEO) - Dancing at the Core and Throughout the Curriculum
- Musical Instrument Museum - Music for All: Access Programs at MIM
- Childsplay - Access Across the Spectrum
- Create Academy - Camp 2050
- Essential Theatre - In Visibility: Arizona's First Playback Ensemble with Homeless Young Adults
- Pro Musica Arizona - The Unpredictable Adventures of Henry Hicklebee
- Howl Theatre Project - Southern Discomfort: Two By Tennessee
Southern Region:
- Borderlands Theater - Teatro Frontizero Summer Camp
- Gretchen Baer - Paint Your Town!
- Ballet Tucson - Dance Forward--identifying innovative choreographers through a competitive process.
- Arts Express, Inc. - Building careACTOR Program - Production of Beauty and the Beast
- Tucson Symphony Orchestra - New Music Dividends
- Daniel Buckley - The Mariachi Miracle
- Southwest Folklife Alliance - Global Foodways Heritage Wagon Artist Residency
- Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum - The Sonoran Desert Speaks
- Wharehose Arts Maintenance Organization - The E=MC(2) Project; "Exposure= Making Creative Concepts
Northern Region:
- Sedona Arts Center - Digital Shoebox Storytelling
- Milagro Arts Center - Milagro Arts Center Grand Opening
- Canyon Movement Company - Young Choreographers' Challenge
- Prescott College Art Gallery at Sam Hill Warehouse - Sam Hill Resources Initiative
- comMUSIKey - Everyone's a Performer: Let's All Leap into Music Together
- AZ Culture and Town of Clarkdale - Verde Valley Open Air Cinema
Western Region:
- WHAM Art Association - The Artist Within
- Sprawlr - Sprawlr: Stories from the Sprawl
- Phoenix Theatre - Phoenix Theatre & Intrinsic Impact
- The Rag Collection - Street Voice
- Orange Theatre - Orange Theatre Digital Performance Lab
- Space 55 - The Rides of March
- Teatro Bravo - The Carpa Plays
- Ann Morton / Street Gems - Street Gems: Chronically homeless making saleable gifts from discarded plastics
- Arizona Association of the Deaf (AzAD) - Journey into Deafhood: Reframing Your Perception
Editor's note: This post has been updated from its original version to correct the mislabeling of the Western event participants as Eastern.