Women in the Arts and Media Coalition, Inc. Now Accepting Submissions for 2015 Collaboration Award

The Women in the Arts and Media Coalition, Inc. will present the 2015 Collaboration Award recognizing Women Working With Women. This is the fifth Collaboration Award presented by the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition, whose mission is to focus the power of its member organizations together and to use that combined strength to address issues of concern to women in the arts, media, and new media. The Coalition is committed to being the link between its member organizations as they work together to impact the various topics that affect women in our industry through advocacy, networking, and events.

The $1,000 Collaboration Award and additional honorable mentions are designed to encourage professional women in the arts and media from different specializations to work collaboratively on the creation of a new artistic work. As the aim of the award is to encourage women to work collaboratively with women of other disciplines, each collaborative team must be comprised of female members of different Coalition associations, unions, guilds and affiliates of The Coalition. Eligible teams may submit any form of creative collaboration on a new work that had its first public performance within the last two years, 2013-2015. A public performance can include, but is not limited to a staged reading, gallery show, screenings, concert series, etc.

Shellen Lubin, co-president of Women in the Arts & Media Coalition, Inc., states "For the Coalition, collaboration is particularly important to acknowledge for two reasons: first, as women are breaking down barriers in all these different disciplines, they have too often been the only woman on the creative team, and we want to honor women who choose to work with other women; second, we have been learning for awhile how women collaborating with other women often work together differently than men do with men, and even more so than men do with women. We want to honor these women's unique, ever-evolving collaborative processes."

Submissions will be judged by a Selection Committee made up of accomplished professionals, and will be assessed on the basis of artistic excellence, diversity, and clarity. All topics and subjects will be considered. Special attention shall be given to those projects which reflect the goals of the Coalition: to advance women's work and women's issues.

The application is online at www.womenartsmediacoalition.org and can be saved and re-worked there until submitted to us. A PDF application may also be accessed there for offline submissions.

Deadline: The deadline for the return of completed applications is 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, April 30, 2015. Award winners will be announced by September, 2015.

The selected team and honorable mentions will be invited to be recognized at an awards ceremony in New York in October 2015. Women outside of New York may send a designee to speak about their project and accept the award.

Applicants must be members in good standing of two different organizations and/or affiliates with The Coalition. Those organizations are: Actors' Equity Association, Dramatists Guild, League of Professional Theatre Women, New York Women in Film & Television, Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, Writers' Guild of America, East. Affiliate member organizations are: WomenArts, Women Make Movies, Women's Media Center, Works by Women, The Rehearsal Club, Dancers Over 40, Professional Women Singers Association, The Drama Desk, The Lambs, Inc., and National Theatre Conference. Please send all inquiries and questions to: collaborationaward@womenartsmediacoalition.org.