The reality show of Art Tank grants
Philanthropic groups donate millions to arts organizations each year and, generally speaking, no one enjoys the process of getting the cash from giver to getter.
It all ends well, of course. Theater companies and ballet troupes are able to perform for the public, kids can play instruments, the disadvantaged receive the advantages that painting, writing, singing and poetry can bring to our lives. Lots of good and generous things happen.
But no one likes what it takes to get there: all the applications, the vetting, the committee meetings,
the interviews, the followups, the waiting or the relentless self-promotion that’s involved.
Art Tank does its best to turn all that upside down. It borrows from everyone’s guilty pleasure -- the reality TV show -- and transforms a dull process into an exciting performance.
That’s the plan anyway. Just about anything can happen when five arts groups square off against one another for $55,000 in funding before a live audience and a panel of judges.
This year’s event, the fourth edition, takes place Feb. 21 at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Denver campus.
There are few rules for the presentations — keep it clean and under 10 minutes — and so arts groups get to be creative, which is what they do best.
And the judges get to go on instinct, and make decisions on the spot, just like the panel on the Art Tank’s inspiration, the popular “Shark Tank” television program where ambitious entrepreneurs make pitches to wealthy investors.
There is also a role for the Art Tank audience, which gets to award $5,000 of the funds.
The competition is spon- sored by The Denver Foundation’s Arts Affinity Group, which describes itself as “a giving circle composed of arts lovers and supporters who each have committed to fund arts-learning activities in Metro Denver.”
Group member Rick Acosta said the idea for Art Tank came up during one of those unexciting committee meetings a few years ago. The group had asked grant applicants to really stretch their abilities and propose original ideas for programming. But around the table, the granting panel was following the same old routine. It didn’t feel appropriate.
“If we’re asking arts organizations to do something new, we thought we should be doing something new, too,” said Acosta, who also serves on a city that gives out government money to cultural organizations.
Art Tank is open to any type of non-profit creative endeavor, not just traditional fare. Last year, the group Arts Street, which works to reduce gang violence by encouraging selfidentity, took the top prize of $30,000.
This year, the competitors include the ECDC African Community Center of Denver, which hopes to ask visual artists to render the stories of local refugees in comic book form, and The Trust for Public Land, which wants to build a shade structure in New Freedom Park, a gathering place that attracts diverse users, including recent immigrants to the city.
The other finalists are Control Group Productions, Denver Talent Show Network and Phamaly Theatre Company.
Because the groups are not all performers, Arts Affinity Group offers them an advance training session with former broadpanel cast journalist Marv Rockford, who teaches live presentation skills.
“We don’t want to just throw them on stage,” Acosta said.
Rockford gives them pointers they can use in the future for other public appearances. “He teaches them what’s expected on stage,” said Acosta, what to anticipate from audiences and judges and, “above all, to practice, practice, practice.”
This year, at the Newman Center, the groups will have the opportunity to run through their presentations during a tech rehearsal on the day of the event.
The successful competitors will join a list of past winners — including Lighthouse Writers Workshop, Access Gallery, Warm Cookies of the Revolution and Youth on Record — who have split more than $250,000 during Art Tank’s four years.