Young Writers Society

Hey! So for school, I have to come up with an idea for an "art grant" project. The reason that it's in quotes is because it's not actually a real art grant, but I want my project to be as accurate as possible (over-achiever alert!).

As some of you may know, an art grant is an idea that has something to do with culture that somehow benefits the community around it. I was pretty stuck for a while until I had an idea:

It will be like a pottery studio where people who make minimum wage or don't have jobs can make some sort of creation (a mug, a bowl, a figurine, a sculpture, etc.) in exchange for one meal. With every creation we would print out a tag with their picture and a paragraph-long message from every creator. We will give every creator 25% of the revenue for this art.

My main question: Is this legal? I'm rubbish with law and such, so I need to enlist the help of someone smarter than me. Thanks in advance!

My second question: Is 25% enough? I want to give the creators SOMETHING for the effort put into their creation, but on the other hand I want this project to be maintain-able (keep in mind that I have to buy clay, paint, varnish, install a kiln, buy bread and such, etc.).

Something my community does with the schools is something called "soup bowl auctions" where kids around the school make bowls with pinch-pot techniques, and those are donated to a fundraiser where you have to bid on your child's bowl to get it along with other community members to raise money for charity which goes towards supporting the homeless in the community. So, if you set it up with artists in the community buy a class on making bowls, and those bowls are donated to an auction and then the auction money goes to charity, you could have the for-profit of the classes, and the not-for-profit with the auction.

*not a lawyer*

(Not lawyer, can't give legal advice, but did have a legal-studies major for some reason)

For the most part I think that's probably legal. It may depend on your state's Food Safety codes/laws -- I believe these vary from state to state though so you may want to do a quick google search to see what your state's laws are regarding supplying meals. If you gave them a coupon or pre-packaged meal it'd come into less legal issues than if you're preparing the food on-site. Also you would I guess have to make sure the people doing the art have consented (with a signed contract?) to you selling their art work. Those are the only two big things I could think of. Good luck on your project!

@JuliasSneezer ASDFGHJKL wish I could have seen this when you still had to do your project. Dangit. fellow CCer right?.

Hey fellow CCer! (I'm not a lawyer either, but I want to become one, so here it goes.)

So it honestly depends on your state legislature. I'm not sure how it works for each state but here goes nothing.

It should be legal, based on my limited knowledge just on the state that I live on. In my state, it should be ok to share personal information as long as it's with consent. An individual might be required to fill out a release form or something like that. Look up online "Personal Information Laws (State Names)" and variations of that until you can find what you need. Also, if there is a website that lists your state legislature then you could search there as well.

In order to answer your second question. This one is slightly more tricky. You would first have to figure an estimated amount of people that would enjoy this event. Take the people that make the minimum wage in the area, and divide it half. This is the best way to do this that I know of. (Don't take my word on this though, that is just how I did it) It also allows you to be safe so that you don't overestimate and result in debt. (I realize this is fake, just in a real-life scenario.)

Then take that number and figure out all of the costs for the supplies. Take out the money from the grant.

Figure out the estimated price per item. (Make sure you include the price of the tags, pictures, signs, and tables." Once you have that price, take out 20%. From their you can decide if it is good for you.

And by the way, I love your idea. Mine was absolute trash. (And I also procrastinated so shhh!)