Last month I was doing some online research which led me to the Culture and Animals website. I had applied for funding from Culture and Animals in 2012 and hadn’t heard back so naturally assumed I had not been awarded support for my project.
This happens of course but I remember thinking some time after my application that it was odd that I hadn’t received a courtesy email or letter saying something along the lines of, … sorry but on this occasion we were not able to award funding for your project …” In any case, when I visited the site, I was curious to see whom and what kind of projects they had supported in 2013 and there, to my very great surprise, was my name on the published list of grant recipients!
Now I know I have a bad memory especially for numbers and names but I am pretty sure I would remember something as exciting as receiving a grant, especially a grant from the Culture and Animals Foundation, run by famous and fabulous animal rights activist and writer professor Tom Regan and his lovely wife Nancy Regan.
I wrote to Nancy Regan to explain my story and she was just as surprised as me. I should have received a hard copy letter accompanied by a cheque but unfortunately I had moved house and only had mail re-directed for a few months. They may well have sent me an email but my previous Macbook had died and some of my mail had gone with it. If I hadn’t stumbled across the online list of recipients I may never have known!
A requirement of the grant was that progress reports should be sent to the foundation during the year of recipiency. Of course not knowing I was a recipient, I hadn’t send anything and wondered if they must have thought me very rude. In February, retrospectively, I send a brief synopsis of my projects in 2013 and some images of new works and awaited a response. Just this morning Nancy Regan wrote to inform me that the board had approved re-issuing the grant and that I would receive a cheque in the mail shortly. Yippee!!
Receiving funding from the Culture and Animals foundation is not only a huge help towards funding my art production and exhibitions but more importantly, it affirms that my art practice is an important means of advocating for the rights of other animals.
A massive thank you to The Culture and Animals Foundation!
And now, its back to the studio for me!
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