Sunday, March 19, 2006

artistic resume?

I'm applying for a thingie that requires an "artistic resume." Anyone have advice about how to structure one of these? Should I just throw together sections for publications, awards, readings, education/workshops, and other activities? Should publications go in chronological order, or alpha by journal title, or what? I have no clue here.

Thanks to anyone who can make a suggestion. :)

13 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm not really sure. . .

But I would think that yes, all of those categories you listed would go into it. The 'skills' i guess you have as a writer--any community projects, publications, education, etc.

Unknown said...

I did mine in reverse chronological order. My guess is to go with headings like "Recent Honors," "Recent Publications & Readings," and "Literary Employment." It's good to throw "recent" in there to imply a vast history of honors and exploits too numerous to mention on this simple sheet. :) I usually list my day job, too, just for the sake of respectibility.

Hope your day of meetings goes well. I'll make sure at least one of us fills you in on tonight's River Styx reading.

Radish King said...

Artist resumes are a cinch. If they ask for Artist Statement, run away screaming.

Pamela Johnson Parker said...

I asked Harvey, as he's just finished an artistic resume, and he said to put your prizes and awards first on the publications list, then list everything in reverse chronological order after that. So your Pushcart nomination, Merton award, et cetera, should be skywritten at the top of that section. He won a a honkin' new computer with his resume, so maybe that strategy worked.

Anne Haines said...

I put everything on there (publications, classes & workshops, etc.) and it came to 4 full pages -- and that was with an abbreviated "readings and performances" section. (Although I did double space the publications.) Yeah, I think I am limiting it to "recent" stuff. :) Last five years or so, maybe. Right now I've got "Awards," "Recent Publications" (broken down into Anthologies and Journals), "Education and Workshops (Recent and Selected)," "Selected Readings and Performances," "Other Activities" (which is where I put my writing groups including the self-publishing we've done), "Formal Education" and "Current Employment." It still goes onto 3 pages so I think I want to reformat it to death so it at least fits on two...

Thanks, folks! Cross your fingers for me.

Anne Haines said...

Rebecca, an Artist Statement would be where I put the stuff about how I write to synergize the synergies of the synergistic world and to reframe and de(con)textualize the Foucaultian gaze, right?

(That just made my head hurt. No more!)

Amanda Auchter said...

Thanks so much for your congrats! MFA program applications are VERY stressful, despite what anyone tells you. O the pressure. A friend of mine had to write an artistic statement for a design position @ The Ringling School. It includes vision, methadology, influences, and 'written' examples of your work.

Lyle Daggett said...

Just a further comment on artistic resumes -- on mine, I list publications first (books, anthologies, magazines, other); then readings; then other writing-related activities (teaching, manuscript critiquing, etc.); then education, briefly (poets I've studied with, and then formal education, degrees, etc.); then employment, more briefly; and a sentence or so about "other interests" at the end.

I give the categories near the top (publication, readings) the most space, and gradually shrink the space I give to the items further down. I use the word "recent" at the beginning of all lists, and I end all lists with "and other [publications, venues etc.]..."

Studies have found that people tend to remember items at the beginning and end of a list better than they remember the middle of the list, so I list the most important or prestigious (if there are any) items first in each list, and the most unusual or eccentric at the end. For example, under readings, I list Walker Art Center (major modern art museum here) first, and I list a reading on a Metro Transit bus at evening rush hour at the end of the list.

I don't say how old I am or my birth date (people might get an inkling from the dates I was in school), but the first item in the resume I say something like "Have been writing poems for more than 35 years," or however many years it's been: a very basic and obvious detail, in a sense, but important; an artistic resume should assume that everyone in the world agrees that writing is the most important activity anyone can do. Everything else will flow from that.

Steven D. Schroeder said...

Honestly, if what they really want is a CV, these long, comprehensive documents are great. If what they want is actually a resume, you should be maxing out at three pages and trimming out all the stuff that doesn't especially matter--minor publications, readings, and what-have-you--to leave the really sparkling highlights that will have the most impact.

Steve, CPRW
Wishing he'd seen this earlier :-)

Radish King said...

Interesting. I never list my Pushcart nomination anywhere. I would if I won, however. I don't list finalist or short listed either. I dunno. Just me I guess. That's why I was able to write my artist resume on a tampon.

Anne Haines said...

Thanks, all! Very very helpful.

I've got mine down to 3 pages right now and am just debating whether to take out a couple of recent but smaller publications in favor of some old (like 15 years ago) but more impressive ones. I think, for the purposes of this particular thingie, I probably want to focus on the recent -- more "what I'm doing these days" than "what I've done in my life." But maybe I'll sneak a couple of the oldies-but-biggies in there; I think I can do that & keep it to three pages. I suspect my written statement & my manuscript will be more important anyhow.

(No, not applying for MFA programs here. Not yet, anyway.)

Steven D. Schroeder said...

Sounds like you done good, Anne. As for the old publications, list them if they're impressive enough. On a regular resume, never hurts to say you went to an Ivy League school, even if it was 25 years ago--you just don't list the dates in that case. Another advantage of a resume over a CV. ;-)

David Vincenti said...

Late to the party as always, I am.

You don't way what this resume for, and I don't think you can ever intelligently judge a resume without knowing that. For example, in some cases other peformance credits beside writings and readings might be useful. As might administrative experience in direct or borderline artistic roles.

In any event, I'm sure you've completed and mailed it by now. Good luck with whatever it was!