• Overview
• Timeline
• Studio Environment Goals
• Mandated Requirements
• Mentorship Proposal
  • Mentorship Proposal Example
• Materials & Mentor Stipend
• Apply to be a Mentor!

Overview

The TAM program is geared towards teens who are interested in exploring their personal creativity and potentially pursuing a fine arts career. Our goal is to provide them with a unique, informative, and character-building experience within a collaborative studio environment. Mentorships are intentionally educational while avoiding the traditional class format, allowing more freedom to the students being mentored. By focusing both on technical training and the expansion of confidence and creativity, the TAM program and our guiding Mentors offer students a formative arts enrichment experience.

Upon completion of a mentorship, we aim for our students to:

• feel empowered and informed to reach their personal goals, be that an arts career, fine art school, or creative self expression;
• acquire specific technical skills + exhibition and/or performance experience;
• have produced a small portfolio of works, specific to their mentorship, that will aid them in future endeavors and/or with applications; and
• have been introduced to the aesthetic styles and career choices of artists/art industry professionals in our community.

Timeline

Within the Spring, Summer, and Fall mentorship “seasons,” mentors have some flexibility with scheduling. Most mentorships take place 1-2 times during the week, for a longer block over the weekends, or as an intensive workshop during a break from school (ex. Spring Break). All mentorship sessions are in person.

• Spring mentorships take place between March-May;
• Summer mentorships between June-August; and
• Fall mentorships between September-November.

Mentor onboarding workshops and final steps are planned for January-February, with the spring session launching in March, summer in June, and fall in September. 

Studio Environment Goals

The TAM studio environment is very important to us. Whether your studio is a local community center, shared workshop, or private space, the learning environment that you create for your students is essential to their experience and essential to the success of this program.  

We strongly emphasize the following goals for a studio environment, and aim to provide all of our Mentors with support in reaching these goals.

• Relatable yet professional mentor-student relationship
  • We treat our students with the respect of a professional artist, even though they are in their teens and may just be beginning to explore their creativity 
  • We hope that mentors and students develop a fun and friendly relationship, but mentors must always be sure to maintain a boundary of professionalism with the students
• Age appropriate language and content
  • Some of our students are as young as 13 years old and may not even be in high school yet. Keep this in mind as you tailor your topics and language to meet them at their level.
• Safe and inclusive environment 
  • Our students come from a wide range of racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. Mentors should be sensitive to these diversities, and make all students feel equally valued. 
  • Our students display an even wider range of skill level/training. Each student should be encouraged to explore their unique abilities without ever feeling that technical skill is a limiting factor. 
• Collaboration, exploration, and creativity
  • Encouraging students to work together, uplift each other, bounce ideas off one another, and generally foster a collaborative studio environment is what our students love most about the TAM program. Students are here to learn, but they are equally as much here to build confidence and connections with their peers, themselves, and their guiding mentors.

Mandated Requirements

Mentors must:

• Submit a completed mentorship proposal, including schedule and materials outline.
• Successfully complete a background check.
• Ensure that both they and all students complete all necessary waivers. The Arts Fund must receive all waivers within 2 weeks of the first mentorship session.
• Ensure that students sign and date all of their work, and provide The Arts Fund with all works and information by the deadline before the final exhibition.
• Ensure that students are sufficiently prepared for the final exhibition/performance. All visual art must be finished to gallery standards (varies; check with The Arts Fund staff about what this means for your specific mediums; ex: back-wired, varnished, framed, etc).
• Aid their students in creating some type of rudimentary bound/contained portfolio for their works. This allows both the mentorship students and The Arts Fund staff to store and transport work without damage. Feel free to get creative with this!

Additionally, mentors are strongly encouraged to set up 1 guest speaker visit by an individual with relevant knowledge.

Mentorship Proposal

The mentorship proposal should include an overview of the topics and techniques planned for each session. The Arts Fund will need to approve your submitted proposal before we open applications. The following sections are required, and an example can be found below.

• Summary
  Explain the mentorship focus, goals, techniques, etc.  
• Mentor Introduction
  Tell your students about your experience, interests, and skillset. 
• Goals/Objectives
  List your goals and objectives for the mentorship.
• Procedures/Scope of Work
  A summary of the topics and deliverables involved in this mentorship.
• Schedule
  Create a schedule of every meeting, the time + location, and the topic that will be covered. Include the planned visit of your guest speaker, their title, and the topic they will be speaking about.
• Materials
  List what materials you/The Arts Fund will be providing for the students, and what they will need to bring on their own. If you or The Arts Fund will be providing any materials, include a budget.

Materials & Mentor Stipend

The Arts Fund allocates each Mentor a materials budget of $500. Before receiving your materials funds, you must first submit an itemized and priced Materials Outline for approval by The Arts Fund. This is included in the mentorship proposal example document above.

This materials budget must include the following:

• Art materials
  Materials for students during the mentorship session
• Location rental
  If the space is not provided by the mentor, The Arts Fund, or other entity, budget must include rental cost for the meeting location
• Exhibition materials
  Materials to prep student work for exhibition or performance (back wire, frames, enlargement or printing, costumes, speakers/microphones)

Each mentor receives a total stipend of $1500 for 30 hours of demonstration and studio time. Mentorship preparation and planning are not included in this 30 hour total. In most cases, the first half of the mentorship stipend will be paid on the first day of the mentorship, with the following half paid after all student works have been delivered to The Arts Fund and/or the date of the final performance.

Please contact us with any questions about the stipend, or for more information.