Teruel, Encarnación

Arts administrator Encarnación Teruel reveals an insider’s view to the criteria and application process for grants, discussing state funding for artists and not-for-profit arts organizations and the importance of grant funding as part of an overall strategy to sustain yourself as an artist.

“Really successful artists get foundation support, they get government support, they may have a job at Columbia or the School of the Art Institute, because the package they get from their job helps sustain them. Because we know, as artists…it’s really hard to sustain yourself just on the sale of your artwork.”

Encarnación Teruel has been the Director of Visual Arts, Media Arts, and Multi-Disciplinary Arts Programs for the Illinois Arts Council since 2004. Previously, he worked as the performing arts director for the Field Museum and the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum (now the National Museum of Mexican Art). He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he will be a guest curator for the M.F.A. exhibition in 2013.