You got the funding, now what?

How R&D is 1, 2, 3 for Neurodivergent Artists (let me explain!)

I had a really interesting conversation recently with a neurodivergent artist who was successful with her Arts Council application but she was stressing about wasting their money because she was getting nowhere with her attempts and research into a specific technology she wanted to explore and use in her practice.

She had tried so many different ways but kept hitting a brick wall.

It reminded me of a few days ago when I asked my Access Worker what words do I use, or how is it possible, or that I did not have the possibility of thought or thinking style to even consider to ask for funding without having done at least some work for it.

“But you can ask for funding for lost income, or to pay your bills, it says so right here.”

And I know it did.

But my mind simply can’t get round the fact that I can do that.

Because I need to go into extreme burn out and stress before I can even consider being paid.

Here at MW, since we were unsuccessful with our many funding applications, it’s been absolutely gut wrenching to have to turn away so many Neurodivergent artists (worldwide) who are absolutely desperate for arts mentoring… but because I now have a baby, I literally can’t (it’s impossible) to mentor for free, in the way I would have done before. My time is now so precious and I often have to decide between sleep and doing any kind of writing or art. (I often choose sleep!)

But in many ways, having a baby has taught me that if my time is precious, then so must I realise that my skills are precious too and those skills - I should be paid to use them.

Think about that for a second, your autistic (or ADHD) traits/skills are so precious, that you must be paid for that. Because the skills that make me prolifically produce work, are in fact skills that only so many neurotypicals would dream of having, but they might only do 1% of the work I put in and get paid for that and be satisfied with it, whilst I’m prolifically making/creating a mountain of work, and drowning in it, having taken instructions or directions or agreements so literally that I believe producers or platforms when they say it’s essential the work is (XYZ), that when I realise everyone around me does NOT have Z, there’s no sighting of Y and I can barely see an “X” but they appear to get the most praise for their efforts…

And we feel…

Well, burnt out.

And so many other neurodivergent artists are in the exact same boat, like this neurodivergent artist who was becoming stressed.

So I said to her - but those many different ways is you trying to find a way in, or out of the problem - and that’s R&D - you are committed and are doing it to the highest scale - you are prolific in research and developing ways of doing…

Now I have a theory on R&D that neurodivergent artists miss out on:

Neurodivergent artists never usually ask for R&D funding because they don’t quite know what that is. I mean, they might ask for R&D funding but continue to treat it as an actual project that needs a conclusion and needs to be finished, often polished and complete.

But R&D can be an “unfinished” project

It can be a ….. wait for it ….. autistic obsessional interest - where everything is mapped out, researched, written, prolifically produced but does not need to be concluded

It can be a “until next time folks”

Or…

an unfinished ADHD project that has been tested and tested and tested and failed at.

And so why then, do we neurodivergents struggle so much in asking for money for R&D?

Because obsessional researching and developing and process and unfinished projects are our master pieces that could never possibly be counted as …. something to be funded. Can we actually be paid for that?!? (Short answer: Yes.)

But here’s the thing,

The neurodivergent artist who was stressing she was wasting money - has (guaranteed) done 100x more work on the project than a neurotypical artist has.

Yup.

I said it.

I said it.

But it’s true.

And because I’m trying to be even bolder with my neurodivergent voice (skills) - and bluntness, I’m here if you have an idea to develop or an obsessional interest to take forth,

If you want to apply for Arts Council funding for your project, they offer you access support help with the application. You can approach us for that access support. The way we support is 100% ND led, and we can “translate” if you like, your ideas and vision into a step by step process. But this isn’t an advert, this is simply helping you realise that your ideas ARE worth being funded, and so if you have the funding and are struggling we can also help in identifying with you what you have already achieved, accomplished, discovered…

(It’ll be a mountain’s worth)

And, you’ll notice something else, in your pursuit for “the truth” or “big discovery” that you’ll have forgotten to pay yourself, and your expenses.

So working backwards now:

How many hours did you spend researching X? (What’s that? 56 hours? Okay then, let’s break down those hours - 56 hours @£11/hour is £616 on the lower end - if you pay yourself £20/hour then it’s £1120 - yes you CAN pay yourself that, yes YOUR TIME is worth that, yes YOUR ARTISTIC research IS important.

Okay great, and then you also spend a huge amount of time absorbed in collecting sound and singing a million different ways of doing Y - how long did that take you? What’s that? 120 hours - goodness, you’ve worked hard! How much do you want to pay yourself for that? Well, if we work out that 8-10 hours = 1 day, and you want that to be 12 days then you can ask for 12 days @ 1 day = £200. So, that’s £2400 to include your expenses which were taxi rides out to the forest to collect all the different bird song and that computer technology programme that differentiates sounds, yes how much did that cost? £100? Add that in there too.

Finally, we get to “Z” - Z is all the admin where you make connections, explore and engage with an audience of some kind, either in a podcast, or blog or the way so many of us Neurodivergent artists do so naturally drawing a crowd - yes that (yes that counts!) how many hours did you spend on your blog and podcast? 50 hours? And how many were in the audience? 500?! Wow that’s brilliant!

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Your time is worth it.

Your art is incredible.

And more audiences deserve to engage with it.

Written by Elinor Rowlands