Name: Melissa Gilmore

Grant Applied For: Small Projects Program; city offers up to $1,000 for “small-scale art projects”

Money Needed For: costs associated with marketing the artist’s work

Background: In her application, Gilmore claims to have “experimented with many art forms” since her high-school days. Though she has received formal training—five years of classes at American University and Glen Echo Park—she admits that the bulk of her experience “comes from self-teaching.” According to her application, Gilmore bought the necessary equipment for making photographic image transfers in the summer of 2004. Shortly thereafter, she exhibited her work at the Washington City Paper’s Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair, where she says she received “several favorable comments.”

Plan: Spurred on by her success at Crafty Bastards, Gilmore looks to the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities for support. “The praises from passers-by boosted my confidence and showed me there just might be a market in D.C. for my art,” she writes. Gilmore’s asking for the full $1,000—including $567 for a logo design and Web and postcard development, as well as $230 for “post card mailing.”

Amount Asked For: $1,000

Status: approved

Upshot: Gilmore says she expects her Web site to be completed in September and the postcards to go out shortly thereafter. She’s deeply appreciative of the city’s assistance.

“I have very limited opportunities,” she says. “There are very few other grants out there that I would get.” —Mike Kanin