How to stand out with the crowd
Skye Gellmann, right, with Kieran Law at rehearsals for Blindscape, which benefited from crowd funding. Picture: Aaron FrancisSource: News Limited
BRISBANE artist Jason Bray is happy to report he may never have to apply for a government arts grant again.
The filmmaker was one of several people sharing their experiences in Brisbane at a public forum last week on crowdfunding -- the increasingly popular practice of securing pooled donations online. Organised by Australian creative crowdfunding website Pozible, the event forms part of the platform's push to redefine how Australians think about and fund the arts.
Pozible co-founder Alan Crabbe says crowdfunding has turned the tables on the passive exercise of waiting for grants as almost half of the website's traffic is generated by social media use. Bray's documentary Street Dreams, about southeast Asia's prostitution trade, is one of about 500 Australian projects that have secured $2 million collectively since Pozible's launch in May 2010.
"A lot of artists would say they have to wait around, and there's a lot of unknowns, but being able to get out there and do your own projects without having to shape the project to suit other people or organisations is probably the most valuable asset of running your own campaign.""It's empowering creatives to do their own work and not be limited by governments to provide the grants or facilities or resources to do it," Crabbe says.
Crowdfunding allows artists to bypass the usual funding models and appeal directly to the consumer for support. Elliott Bledsoe, digital content officer at the Australia Council, says the audience-focused nature of the platform is appealing for many artists.
"Rather than trying to convince an arm's length peer assessment board about the merit of a project, you're trying to convince the people who will ultimately press play, or sit in a seat and watch it on stage or whatever. I think it presents a very different way of thinking about how you plan a project that you're hoping to deliver," Bledsoe says.
The recently released Mitchell review into arts philanthropy backs this approach.
Among the recommendations is a capped matching funds scheme for small-scale projects, where the federal government provides the final 20 per cent of money needed after the rest has been crowdfunded.
Caroline Vu, NSW manager at the Australia Council's philanthropic arm Artsupport Australia, says crowdfunding is still in its early days, and that donors and artists need to become more familiar with the platform before it reaches its potential.
"There's work that we need to do to build confidence with those people (donors) by showcasing the fact that there is competency and professionalism in the arts sector and also that the projects go ahead. That will help us get to a tipping point where you do start to see bigger projects being put on Pozible," she says.
Artsupport Australia is mentoring a small group of artists and organisations through their crowdfunding campaigns for a pilot project, and plans to present their findings across the country to encourage others.
Each Pozible campaign is unique: some artists seek funds for an entire project, others for creative development or particular equipment.
Circus performer Skye Gellmann recently raised $3000 for his new production Blindscape, which premieres at the Next Wave Festival in Melbourne next month. Gellmann and his collaborators had built a special mobile application to be used during the show but needed money to buy iPods to supply to audience members.
Donations are made via credit card and handled by a third party. Pozible pockets a 7.5 per cent fee on successful projects. Like Kickstarter, the US-based crowdfunding platform, the website operates on an all-or-nothing basis: if the target isn't met in the allocated time (a maximum of 90 days), the project receives nothing. Money received is considered taxable income, as tangible rewards such as free tickets, DVDs and recordings are offered to encourage pledges.
Pozible's early successes were modest, but within a few months the struggling website New Matilda secured $175,000 in just 50 days, which remains the platform's biggest project to date.
Gareth Hart, an independent choreographer from Melbourne, also looked to crowdfunding in a time of need.
Hart is a co-director of the Crack Theatre Festival, part of the larger This is Not Art event, held annually in Newcastle, NSW. When the local council announced in June last year it was not renewing triennial funding, the organising committee was left with an $18,000 shortfall.
Within a fortnight Hart had set up a crowdfunding campaign with a target of $4000.
Copyright Agency Limited then pledged to match all donations dollar-for-dollar up to $9000 and $18,300 was raised in total. Hart says tracking donations in real time was a nerve-racking but ultimately affirming experience.
"The biggest way it differs to a government agency or an NGO funding you is that you really feel the support of the people," he says. "You don't write an amazingly good grant application and then one person decides 'yes, that is worth it, we're going to acknowledge that and support that'. It's a collective, unanimous voice."
Crabbe suggests potential Pozible users compare themselves against projects with similar ambition and scope, and communicate their needs clearly and regularly to would-be donors.
Creative pitches using video testimonials are becoming increasingly popular.
Pozible does have a screening process and about half the applications are given the green light to proceed but no receipts or funding reports are required following a successful campaign. A lump sum minus the service fee is transferred directly into the artist's bank account.
This creates both flexibility and the potential for misuse. Crabbe says an honour system is a powerful deterrent for dishonesty given the majority of donors are usually known by the artists involved.
"For someone to run a project and take the money and not provide what they promised is probably reckless on their part and very bad for their reputation, because any campaign usually starts with their instant network," he says. That the most popular Pozible pledge amount is $50 brings this risk into perspective.
"The kind of expectation that emerges in a crowdfunding environment and the likelihood of a return on that, at least in most situations, seems to match up," Bledsoe says.
"Who knows what that will look like when crowdfunding becomes a much more accepted and commonplace environment, but as a fairly new phenomenon within the internet it seems to be holding its own at the moment."
The two founders of Pozible are not artists.
They met in 2007 when Crabbe, visiting from Northern Ireland, advertised online for a road trip companion. Rick Chen, an international student from China, responded to the call.
The gen-Y duo's first business venture -- a website to help visual artists sell their work -- was a false start but within nine months they had refocused to launch Pozible, and have continued to expand the site without any external funding to date.
While the government has yet to respond to the recommendations contained in the Mitchell review, Vu says the power of crowdfunding to support and promote the arts is clear.
"The end game for crowdfunding, as well as raising the money, is really about building long-term relationships with donors," she says.
"You have supporters for life and have an audience for life. That's kind of the point of it".
Original Link: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/how-to-stand-out-with-the-crowd/story-e6frg8n6-1226336495964
