Call for Arts Workshops: Black History Month

The Santa Barbara Public Library is inviting artists to submit proposals for youth and family arts activities in February 2022.

The Santa Barbara Public Library wants to involve local artists in planning youth art activities for the community. This year, Black History Month programming will include a family event with a public art-making opportunity for all ages, a school age art or maker activity, and a preschool art or hands-on learning activity. Library staff will assist with formatting, guidelines, and translation of instructions for all three activities. Library staff can provide examples of kits we have distributed over the past year for inspiration. The goal of the program is to engage youth and families from all backgrounds with the rich history and culture of the Black community.

The Library is seeking artists of all mediums to propose interactive youth activities exploring Black history and culture in a way that is accessible to families. 

ELIGIBILITY: This project is open to all artists and/or collaborative artist teams at least 18 years of age, working and/or residing in Santa Barbara County. Artists may submit proposals for a family project, a school age project, and/or a preschool age project.

BUDGET:  Selected artists will receive an honorarium of $300 per project for their time. The library will purchase all needed materials, but a targeted materials budget of $7 per kit (we may already have some items on hand, and we have appreciated using recycled or sharing items that can be used again for other projects). This project was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Proposals should be submitted by filling out this application and must be received by January 4 at 5:00 PM. 

Please consider: 

• The artist selected for the family project should be available to guide families through the activity on a TBD Saturday in February. The setting of the family art project will be outdoors in a park. Participants will be dropping in and out as they visit various family activities. Please take the setting and casual nature of this public art creation opportunity into account. Library staff anticipates 150 participants of various ages. Our goal is to reach as many people as possible while providing meaningful experiences for participants, and it will be difficult to calculate an exact number of participants.
• The artist selected for the school age project will be invited to attend 2 workshops in which school age children work on their projects on the first and second Wednesdays of February in the afternoon. Workshops will be limited to 12 participants each. The artist is welcome to lead this experience if they are available on those dates and wish to do so. This project will also need to have written instructions to be completed independently at home or in the library. Approximately 150 project kits will be available to school age youth.
• Preschool projects will be completed either in person at a library location or at home as take-home project kits. Approximately 200 project kits will be available to preschool children. No opportunities for active instruction are available for this age group.

FAQs:

• The Santa Barbara Public Library is looking to connect families and children with local artists. Proposals should come from artists living and working in Santa Barbara County, and proposals from artists working in the Santa Barbara Public Library’s service area will be given priority in the selection process. 
• Artists need not have any teaching experience to submit a proposal. 
• Artists with experience, passion for, or a background with Black history and culture will be given priority in the selection process. There is a preference for artists who are from the Black community. The Library plans to offer similar calls for proposals for general interest as well as specific cultural groups in the future. 
• Workshops will be selected by a panel with representatives from the Santa Barbara Public Library staff and local teaching and art institutions from diverse, non-dominant backgrounds. The panel’s decisions will be announced by January 10, 2022. 

Artists who desire more information before submitting their application may contact Lisa Gonzalez, Senior Librarian for Youth Services, at LGonzalez@SantaBarbaraCA.gov.