Over the years, the Firefly Arts Collective (FAC) has been proud to provide grant support to Firefly artists to enable them to express and fulfill their varied creative visions. These grants are intended to support and promote radically-expressive, community-based, interactive and/or collaborative projects that help define and shape the creative core of the event.
Dennis Zografos Memorial Music & Tech Grant
The Dennis Zografos Memorial Music & Tech Grant is a special supplementary grant awarded annually to a Creativity Grant proposal which showcases music or technology. It’s funded by the surviving family of Dennis Zografos (or “DZog” for short). Dennis passed away in the summer of 2023 at the age of 35.
During his time with us, Dennis was a beautiful light in the Firefly community, both as a participant and as a leader. He created and shared a large amount of projection and LED art and did VJ gigs and lighting setup at many a Firefly, as well many gatherings outside the event. Dennis was a founding member of the theme camp Virtuality, a leader in the Firefly Art Cluster from 2016 to 2023, and a member of the Firefly Board of Directors from 2021 to 2023. During his time overseeing Art Grants, the budget quadrupled, helping hundreds of artistic visions be realized at Firefly and beyond. Dennis coordinated volunteer reviewers, encouraged thoughtful, constructive discussion during the Art Grant application process, and created the open-source Firefly Art Grants web portal.
Throughout his time with us, Dennis maintained a dedicated but laid-back spirit, was kind and open-minded, and, not least of all, was really fun to be around! In recognition of how important Firefly and its community was to his life, his surviving family has contributed $1,000 this year to the Dennis Zografos Memorial Music & Tech Grant, which is awarded at the discretion of the Firefly Art Grant Cluster.
How to Apply
This grant will be offered as a special supplementary award for an approved Creativity Grant, adding an additional $1000 to the amount granted to the original proposal. This may even push the total grant well above the usual cap for Creativity Grants! To apply, select the “music & tech” tag when submitting your proposal, and include in your proposal a paragraph describing how you believe your project will showcase music and technology at the burn. Only one grant of this type will be awarded. Since Creativity Grants are split into two rounds, it’s in your best interest to apply early in order to be considered first. If a proposal is selected for this grant in Round 1, proposals in Round 2 will not be considered.
Since this is considered a supplement to the primary Creativity Grant, it would be wise to budget it as a supplement to your project as well. In other words, you should not rely on this grant to complete your basic project, but to make it bigger, better, and more impressive.
For more information about Creativity Grants in general as well as deadlines and requirements, please visit the Creativity Grants page here.
Review Process
For more information on how grants are awarded, see the Art Grants page.
Questions?
Feel free to reach out to us at grants@fireflyartscollective.org!