The Professional Outreach Program addresses the needs of professionals within the woodturning field. These professionals include writers, collectors, teachers, demonstrators, and gallery owners or managers. The goals of POP are to improve services to the professional turner and to promote turned wood as a collectable art form.
POP Grants are issued every two years. The 2010 POP Grant offering period is now closed. The 2012 Grant offering will commence in mid-2011.
What is the POP Fellowship Grant? The purpose of this Grant is to encourage creative growth, research, or to provide inspiration for new directions in turned wood art. An applicant might be interested in pushing their work creatively in a new direction, working in collaboration with another artist, exploring new materials, a new way of using existing materials, etc. The only limit to what ‘might’ be explored is one’s imagination. POP Fellowship Grants are offered every other year and are funded by proceeds from POP exhibits and auctions plus the annual auction at our national conference.
This grant is not to be confused with the EOG (Educational Opportunity Grant). If you wish to apply to take a woodturning course or to attend a woodturning conference, you should consider the EOG for that purpose. This grant is also not intended for club projects or collaborative club projects.
Who Can Apply? You must be a current member of the AAW to apply. This grant is intended for individual, professional wood turners at different stages of their careers and not necessarily well established in the field. Click here for a copy of the Grant Application form in PDF format. There is no requirement to be registered with the POP program as it is a resource rather than a membership. It is recommended though as to keep you up to date with POP related news through email updates and other POP related announcements.
Application Limitations. Each applicant may submit only one application per year, and they can continue to apply in successive years. Previous winners may re-apply after three grant cycles, that is, every six years. Current members of the POP Selection Committee or elected officials of the AAW or its employees or members of their families are not eligible for grant awards.
Distribution of awards: The POP Committee will review the applications and determine the number of awards that they wish to make and the amount of each award. The dollar amount of grants issued will be at the discretion of the committee and based on the quality of proposals submitted and availability of grant funds.
If I receive a grant, what is my obligation to the AAW? Grant winners should prepare to share the gained knowledge of your project with AAW members. This can be done with presentations at the next national convention, or a article submission to be published in the American Woodturner, at the discretion of the winner. High resolution digital images will be required for either presentation and must conducted to reflect a high level of professionalism.