Navigating the Artist Statement with Ines Bellina

In this single-session class, writer and residency-aficionado Ines Bellina will clarify the mysteries of the Artist Statement through discussion, writing exercises, and actual samples.

You have identified your dream residency or intensive workshop. You’ve polished your writing sample to perfection. You’ve set time aside to fill out the application form. But then it happens—a required and dreaded Artist Statement looming over the horizon. But what is it? Why is it? And more importantly, how can you even write it?

Topics covered include:

• Why residencies, workshops, and other publishing opportunities still require them
• Basic structure and best practices
• Common pitfalls and mistakes
• Strategies for reframing the Artist Statement as an opportunity instead of an obstacle
• Tips on how to tailor one template for multiple applications
• By the end of class, students will have enough material to draft their very own Artist Statement.

Ines Bellina is a writer, storyteller, and bon vivant. She is the 2021 winner of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Emerging Voices Award, a DCASE recipient, a 2022 Ragdale resident, an alum of the Tin House Summer Workshop, and future participant of a Wedding Cake House Residency. She is also one of the co-authors of LGSNQ: Gentrification & Preservation in a Chicago Neighborhood, a photography book about the people and places that define Logan Square. You can find her writing in The Cut, Saveur, The Daily Beast, and more.