Artist application guidelines
Welcome to PAINTS!
This is the letter sent out to new PAINTS artists. Lot's of good information! Last updated
Feb 1, 2011
We’re so glad to have you join the more than 70 artists all over the province who are a part of the program.
The PAINTS program is pretty straight forward. Projects range in scope from 3 hours to 24. We try to keep the logistics and paperwork that surround it to a minimum and keep the focus on the hands-on time working in classrooms with the children and youth. While projects of course are made to work for students ranging in age and ability (the program is for grades Primary to 12), there should always be a connection back to the artists own work. That can take many forms, and is really just something for you to keep in mind as you work with a partner teacher to put a project together.
Your listing is now on the PAINTS website. You should go take a look and see if there’s anything that you might want to change. If so, just send me a note in an email and I’ll update it for you.
And of course, feel free to call or write back with any other questions.
All the best,
- Andrea
Andrea Ritchie
PAINTS Co-ordinator
Below are some details about elements of the program that often get asked about. Hang on to this email as a reference.
Getting a Project
Teachers and parents sometimes search the database and get in touch with artists themselves. Of course, a great way to get projects happening is to take the initiative yourself. Contact teachers or parents you know in your area. Think about the kinds of projects that you’d most like to do and call a local school to suggest it. There’s a link on the PAINTS website to the contact information for all of the Public Schools in the province.
Writing an Application
The project application comes from the school. The initial impetus might come from you, a teacher or a parent. The teacher needs to ensure that the school is on board, and that the school or Home and School Association is able to pay the school portion of the fee, $18 per hour.
The description of the workshop should be either written by you, or in collaboration with you. It’s important that the project works for all concerned – i.e. the size of group for each workshop, timeframes that make the work achievable, etc.
A note on BIG projects
Projects (art or otherwise) that involve the whole school can be wonderful events. But, they aren’t usually a good fit for PAINTS. Sometimes a PAINTS project can be a small piece of a larger project that a school is doing with support from other sources. (i.e. 4Cs or Artsmarts). So, for instance if a school is doing a series of projects that focus on creating a garden, then a PAINTS project could be working with one class to create signs, or stepping stones. It’s also worth mentioning that murals aren’t a good fit for PAINTS either. They tend to require so many more hours then we’re able to support, and they often involve a lot of work to be done that doesn’t involve the students, but rather the artist or other adults working on their own. A PAINTS project could help lay groundwork for a mural. Possibly one that works with older students on elements of large scale work so that they could be part of designing and making a mural through other avenues of support.
Hands on support for the workshop
We encourage you to leave as much prep work, supply shopping, room set up and clean up to the teacher, students or volunteers as is possible. This not only reduces the workload for you, but it also increases the sense of investment on the part of others in the project
Getting Paid
PAINTS artists are paid $40 per hour for project time working with students. The fee is paid to you directly from PAINTS upon the completion of your project. If I project is a large number of hours and spans more than a month, we can make an arrangement to make a payment halfway through. Contact me directly and we can arrange that. For a cheque to be written for you, both the project artist and teacher need to fill out a short, online evaluation. Cheques are written every two weeks, so in general, you’ll wait 1 to 3 weeks for payment.
Communication
Once you have a project planned with a teacher, make sure to stay in good contact. Email is often great, since we’re all on such different schedules, and teachers can almost never be reached during the school day. Also, don’t forget that Andrea is here as a resource.
Write or call with questions anytime!
423-4694 paints@paintsns.ca