The Creative Project
8
Planning When Are You Going To Do It
Overview
In this chapter, you learn how to…
- List the fundamental requirements of grant timelines
- Identify best practices for formatting timelines
- Construct a timeline that reflect details and logistics to support your project narrative
In this chapter you will build your project timeline. The timeline helps you develop realistic expectations for yourself and your project partners and allows grant committees to evaluate how thoroughly you have conceptualized your project.
This can feel overwhelming at first. Keep in mind that these documents simply tell the story of your project from a different perspective. Along with providing clarity to the fiscal needs and requirements of your project, funders want to understand how you will go about developing your project over the course of the grant period or grant cycle. Your project timeline is the tool that provides a 30,000-foot view of your logistical plans to the reader of your project description–from the moment funding arrives to the moment you share your work with the world. The timeline is an opportunity to outline the necessary steps of your project and convince the granting organization that your project has a viable execution plan.
Creating a Project Timeline
At this point you’ve developed your budget and the ability to tell the story of your project through numbers. Now it’s time to share with the grant panel how you plan to make your project happen by creating a project timeline.
Every large project needs a detailed plan for you to know if it is on track. In less organized instances, this can look like a pile of sticky notes or scribbles in notebooks and scraps of paper. We’ve all been there, and sometimes a little disorganized brainstorming can be the first step in ideating what your project will look like. But as you seek funding, you need to translate that data into an organized and informative format to convince a granting organization of project success. Let’s talk about a different approach that helps you organize your project into manageable steps and increase the likelihood that your funder says “yes” to the proposal.
Most grants have a grant cycle or grant period in which the funds they award must be used. A project timeline creates a structure for you to outline and break down the necessary tasks for your project to be successful within that time frame. Timelines also help you develop realistic expectations for yourself and your project partners, including those who are responsible for different pieces in a collaborative project.
Last, the timeline helps grant committees evaluate how thoroughly you have conceived of your project and whether you have the critical thinking and planning skills to execute it successfully. Have you ever used the “I just wing it” approach? Yeah, let’s ditch that and map things out a bit more concretely.
Artists in Action
“You can run into some really insane obstacles sometimes, you know. It’s like being nibbled to death by little ducks sometimes, all the little problems you have to solve. But if you have that one core idea that inspired you in the first place, that kind of fire at the very beginning, that’s what I found is kind of the driving force through the whole thing.”
– Adam Rosenblatt
The Key Components
As mentioned above, a timeline is a task list that helps you stay on track. There are four important items to consider as you craft the timeline for your project. They include major events, dependent or minor events, reporting requirements, and internal deadlines.
To clarify this process, let’s look at an example of a New Collaborative Work for one dancer and one musician.
Major Events
Major events are the important milestones for your project. If you are launching a product, this would be your launch date. If you are putting together concerts, this would be the concert dates.
Examples for the New Collaborative Work application include the following major events:
- Soft premiere
- Final concert
Dependent or Minor Events
Minor events are smaller events that are required for the major events to move forward. If you are performing new commissioned works, this could be the date you need to receive the completed scores. If you are creating a product, a date for finishing an initial prototype or receiving basic materials.
Examples for the New Collaborative Work application include the following minor events:
- Confirm venue, audio engineer, and videographer
- Final score deadline
- Final choreography deadline
Reporting Requirements
Some grants include reporting requirements while the project is in progress and after it has concluded. You will want to make sure you build time into your schedule to capture the required data points that your grant requires.
Examples for the New Collaborative Work application include the following reporting requirements:
- Mid-project budget and progress report
- Final project report including performance attendance, recordings, and career impacts
Internal Deadlines
Attach internal deadlines to the major tasks required for your project. Building these checkpoints for your project shows detailed planning, and helps reviewers check your estimates for how long the project will take.
Examples for the New Collaborative Work application include the following internal deadlines:
- First draft of score and choreography
- Workshopping and rehearsal of music and dance
- Marketing strategies
Break Down Large Tasks or Events
When large tasks or events feel overwhelming (and they will), break them into smaller parts in your timeline to show the funder that you understand the necessary steps to complete your project.
Using the example from the New Collaborative Work application, the task “final score deadline” has several subtasks:
- Determine project parameters (e.g., use of media, electronics, etc.)
- Deliver first draft
- Workshop score with musicians
- Revise score
There won’t always be space for this much detail on one page, so you will need to be thoughtful regarding where you include more details. Consider approaching the more self-explanatory aspects of the project with less text so you can focus on the details that may be most relevant for you, your project partners, or the grant committee.
Artists in Action
“I had to write all of these things down and really be very clear and intentional about what I was trying to accomplish: who all the key players were going to be, what it could bring to the embassy, how does it benefit the embassy to engage in this project, and what would the benefit be for me and the person I was trying to honor.”
– Khandeya Sheppard
Estimating Your Project Timeline
First, determine the amount of time you have for your project. Be sure to work within the grant parameters or grant cycle for your specific grant. Keep in mind any explicit deadlines the granting organization specifies within the grant period.
For instance, many projects take less than a year, so using months to divide the timeline works well. For longer projects, instead consider using three-month quarters for your timeline. Below are some best practices to consider.
- Include Margin for Error. The first 1–3 months may require meetings with partners to re-establish activities and responsibilities, so it is important to have a buffer for scheduling and conversation. Something will go wrong—plan for it in your timeline.
- Leave Time for Delivery. Not everything arrives in two days or less! If your project includes ordering equipment or commissioning new work, make sure you build those estimates into your timeline. Reach out to vendors and partners to get estimates about how long you should expect to wait.
- Build In Wiggle Room. Funders know that you can’t anticipate every issue that might delay your project. Be conservative in your estimates and build in time for correction. This shows forethought and garners confidence that the project goals are realistic and can be accomplished.
- Make Time to Assess Project. Make time along the continuum to “assess the state of the project.” Every grant project runs into challenges and not everything goes as planned, so demonstrate that you will be monitoring the progress to address issues efficiently. The future you will thank you and so will the funders.
Beware of the Planning Fallacy!
All humans—yes, all humans—struggle to estimate how long it will take to do something. We are good at creating projects for ourselves. We are not as good at factoring in the difficulties we may encounter along the way (Yudkowsky, 2015). Most people refer to those difficulties as problems. Another way to look at these unexpected hiccups would be surprises (or, better yet, happy accidents or opportunities!).
Consider this common example.
Artist: I booked the venue two months ago, and the manager just contacted me to say they cannot honor our agreement. They are double booked.
Timeline: Surprise! You must book a new space. Do not worry, you have built in enough slack into your timeline to book a new venue. Besides, the original space had a terrible parking lot for guests. Now you can find a venue with more accessibility.
It is also important to break your project down into small enough parts so that you can effectively estimate the time each task will take. One strategy that can be helpful is to check your estimates with people who have done similar projects. Your colleagues can be an incredible resource and help you identify gaps in your planning.
Artists in Action
Formatting Your Timeline
Different formats work best for different types of projects. For some, a narrative form will work well. For others, a linear, time-based structure will be the clearest. For a collaborative project, you may want to organize your timeline based on the different collaborators.
Regardless, it can be helpful to try out a number of designs to see which best captures and reflects your project. This section illustrates three different styles of timelines for you to consider as a starting place: linear format, table format, and graphical format. Examples for the sample New Collaborative Work for dancer and musician project showcase these different styles.
Linear Format
At its most basic, you can create a timeline linearly in a simple word processing document. This format works well for citations with a lot of detailed information about each item.
Your Name – New Collaborative Work for Dancer and Musician
Timeline
June 2020
-
- Creative team meets to discuss ideas for the project and define parameters (multimedia, tech, etc.)
- Solidify project budget
July 2020
-
- Research and contact potential venues, audio engineers, and videographers
- Develop marketing strategies
- Composition in progress
August 2020
-
- Confirm venue, audio engineer, and videographer
- Composition in progress
- Aug 31 – Composer deliver draft score to performers and choreographer
September 2020
-
- Performers and choreographer workshop score with composer
- Document workshopping (photo, video, etc.) for promotional use
- Composer revise score as needed
- Sept 30 – Composer deliver final score to performers and choreographer
October 2020
-
- Choreography in progress
- Workshop choreography with composer
- Document workshopping for promotional use
November 2020
-
- Workshop choreography with dancer and composer
- Document workshopping for promotional use
- Nov 30 – Mid-project budget and progress update
December 2020
-
- Break from project activities
January 2021
-
- Book studio or other location for soft premiere
- Continue workshopping choreography with dancer, composer, and musician
- Document workshopping for promotional use
- Jan 31 – Choreography finalized
February 2021
-
- Rehearse and workshop new work
- Coach new work with mentors or teachers
March 2021
-
- Mar 15 – Soft premiere for friends and colleagues
- Receive feedback from friends and colleagues
- Continue rehearsing new work
- Promote upcoming performance
April 2021
-
- April 10 – First Performance
- Submit project activity report to grant organization
Table Format
Using tables, or multiple columns, you can create a more complex timeline covering several focus areas or partner activities. This is a helpful format to consider if you have a complex project with multiple different pieces or people contributing at the same time.
Your Name – New Collaborative Work for Dancer and Musician Timeline
|
|||
| Project Development | Deadlines & Benchmarks | ||
| 2023
|
June |
Creative team meets to discuss ideas for the project and define parameters (multimedia, tech, etc.)
Solidify project budget |
|
|
July |
Research and contact potential venues, audio engineers, and videographers
Develop marketing strategies Composition in progress |
||
|
August |
Confirm venue, audio engineer, and videographer
Composition in progress |
Aug 31 – Composer deliver draft score to performers and choreographer | |
|
September |
Performers and choreographer workshop score with composer
Document workshopping (photo, video, etc.) for promotional use Composer revise score as needed |
Sept 30 – Composer deliver final score to performers and choreographer
|
|
|
October |
Choreography in progress
Workshop choreography with composer Document workshopping for promotional use |
||
| November
|
Workshop choreography with dancer and composer
Document workshopping for promotional use |
Nov 30 – Mid-project budget and progress update
|
|
| December | No scheduled project activities | ||
| 2024
|
January |
Book studio or other location for soft premiere
Workshop choreography with dancer, composer, and musician Document workshopping for promotional use |
Jan 31 – Choreography finalized
|
|
February |
Rehearse and workshop new work
Coach new work with mentors |
||
|
March |
Receive feedback from friends and colleagues
Continue rehearsing new work Promote upcoming performance |
Mar 15 – Soft premiere for friends and colleagues
|
|
|
April |
Submit project activity report to grant organization | Apr 10 – First performance | |
Graphical Format
Using a graphical format allows you not only to explain the necessary tasks for your project, but also to show the time they will take. Because you can show duration, this format works well for situations where there are ongoing, long-term tasks as part of your project.
It can also show the progression and dependencies of your project visually. Simple versions can be built in slideshow or spreadsheet software applications, or you could explore web-based apps.
Your Name – New Collaborative Work for Dancer and Musician
Timeline
| Tasks (2023 – 2024) | June | July | Aug | Sept | Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr |
| Define project parameters and budget | |||||||||||
| Research, contact, and book venue, engineer, and videographer | |||||||||||
| Composition and workshopping in progress | |||||||||||
| Choreography and workshopping in progress | |||||||||||
| Document workshopping (photo, video, etc.) | |||||||||||
| Mid-project budget and progress update | |||||||||||
| Book studio or other location for soft premiere | |||||||||||
| External feedback from mentors and colleagues; soft premiere | |||||||||||
| Promote final performance | |||||||||||
| Collect reporting material and submit final project report | |||||||||||
| Final Performance (April 10) |
- Which format gives confidence that there is adequate time allotted for each step and the clearest picture of how the project would come together?
- Which examples provide enough detail to connect the dots between significant project tasks?
Exercise 8-1. List Key Components
Using the key components presented in the Creating a Project Timeline section above as a guide, begin to list the key components of your timeline. Start with the major events, then break those down into dependent or minor events. Remain cognizant of reporting requirements and internal or other external deadlines that are pertinent to your project.
As you go through this process, you may find yourself thinking of new items for the budget that relate to items you’ve added to your timeline. Alternatively, you may find yourself referring to your budget to fill in gaps in your timeline. This is good! It is critical that your budget and timeline align. They need to tell the same story while adding detail, substance, and context to your project description.
Exercise 8-2. Reflection
After reviewing the linear, table, and graphical timeline formats, consider the strengths and weaknesses of each. If none of these are the right fit for your project, consider what aspects would be needed to create your ideal timeline.
- Which do you think could work best for your project?
- What are the pros and cons of your choice?
Exercise 8-3. Additional Timeline Resources
In the post, How to Create a Project Timeline in 7 Simple Steps,[1] Asana covers creating a project timeline in detail from a project management perspective. While slightly different from creating a grant timeline, the detailed process they outline may give you ideas for improving your timeline and managing expectations for your project.
Key Takeaways
Creating a detailed timeline that thoughtfully and creatively reflect your project narrative is imperative to writing a strong grant proposal.
- Your project timeline creates a structure for you to outline and break down the necessary tasks for your project to be successful within a given period
- Timelines help develop realistic expectations for yourself and your project partners, including those who are responsible for different pieces in a collaborative project
- Timeline estimates help grant committees evaluate how well you might execute the project successfully
There are four key components to a successful timeline:
- Major events
- Dependent or minor events
- Reporting requirements
- Internal deadlines
Artist Interviews
Below are excerpts from artist interviews conducted by Zane Forshee. Full artist bios and interviews are available in About the Artists. This section includes the following artists and topics:
- Wendel Patrick on Highlighting Strengths
- Lara Pellegrinelli on How To Pitch a Project
Wendel Patrick on Highlighting Strengths
Can you tell me more about your artistic approach to developing applications?
ZF: Artistically, do you think that it’s part of your process artistically that you actually, as you’re developing as an artist, that that’s part of your habit? Is that like that helped you kind of do that, what spurred you to do that? But from my perspective, that’s what I kind of thought was, you know, we’re always kind of in a world observing and then that influences what we’re creating and making. But is that the case in this instance, or was it more like, I’m just curious about how this all works and like seeing what everybody else did?
WP: It was definitely more the second. I mean, I would actually say that in general when I’m most certainly influenced by other things I don’t really… I almost never purposely look for, look at other things for inspiration. Like, I might hear something and be like, wow, that’s really cool and then give me a really great idea for something, but for the most part, artistically, I like to sort of experiment and just see what I come up with.
In some ways that actually was stepping out of a comfort zone to do that, you know. I think artistically, I try as much as possible to not be derivative. Not like a conscious choice that just, this, you know, I just like to fill it with things. Yeah, it was definitely more like, well, if I’m applying like let me see what other applications I think are strong and why.
Honestly, I was encouraged to do that also by the person that I spoke to and it wasn’t even so much about the art at all. It was about how are they presenting their art. Now I would do really specific things like that. I don’t know if they helped, but you had in order to basically say as much as possible about a project.
One of the things that I would do instead of for everything that I introduced or for every project or element, instead of saying what it was, the first sentence that people would read for everything, if it existed, was a quote from someone else about the work, you know, and with the source, like with the source of who, like if it was a magazine or publication, which, you know, that in my mind again I – who knows how successful this was, but whoever is reading that is going to be like, oh, this magazine said this or this person has, it becomes like it’s still about the art, but it becomes more about you’re also giving people an idea of sort of like where you, what stage you are in your career, you know?
It’s just giving people more context than just the art itself. People are always looking for additional information, and if the additional information is that someone else has already said that this is good, you’re going to be less inclined to look at it and think that it’s not. So really concerted specific choices that I made in terms of constructing the application.
ZF: It sounds like you were really thoughtful around narrative and also very creative in like how you framed it. Because you’re right, giving that context before a person engages with a piece of art is really helpful.
I’ll give you an example from my own life. I take my daughter to the museum and we’re looking at a painting and she’s just like, “eh” and then she kind of wanders. But if there’s a story I set up, you know the person who’d like, well, sometimes like look at who the person was or what they’re doing. Then she goes and interacts with them. It’s like a totally different response. Of course, that’s at the five-year-old level.
So how do you accomplish that?
WP: Oh, yeah. Well, I’ll just say that you also have to play to your strengths, but a strength isn’t a strength unless you make it obvious that it’s a strength. And what I mean by that is, you know, so I do a lot of different things. Just, that’s just like a factual statement, right? But that can look very different to different people, right?
If you’re looking at my grant application and it says that I’m a pianist and hip-hop producer and a beat boxer who does turntables, it sort of sounds like somebody who just isn’t particularly focused. Or someone like does a lot of things and maybe is good at one of them or some of them, but not great at any of them. I mean, actually it doesn’t sound like this, but these are conclusions that somebody could logically draw.
For me, in my situation, I have to try to mitigate that as much as possible, right? Whereas you know, somebody who is, you know, the world’s greatest violinist, are they going to have another, different challenge, right? Everybody has to figure out some way to present themselves. But for that grant application, you could present up to 10 different works, right?
So what I did is, my first work wasn’t actually a work. The first work was basically a depiction of all of the different things that I do. So represented within that first work, because you can put, I think, up to ten supporting documents or images. I just chose ten things that spoke to all of these different things that I did then as my first work. Then for works two through nine, those were very specific examples of each of those ten things.
So that way we sort of get it out immediately.–like I do a lot of things. Beyond that, you are now at liberty to peruse the rest of the application and make a decision as to whether or not I do any of those things or all of those things well, as opposed to the initial example being like, wow, this guy’s really unfocused.
ZF: That’s a great point and a really creative way of solving that. Introducing it right off the bat, and then kind of taking the rest of the application to kind of lay out each element of it.
Lara Pellegrinelli on How to Pitch a Project
What advice would you give about how you’re pitching a project?
ZF: Once you had that success, you’ve popped the door open, you’ve climbed in, you’re there and now you’re pitching ideas. If you could go back in a time machine and look at yourself, knowing what you know now, what would you tell yourself or what advice would you give yourself about how you’re pitching a project?
LP: I feel like once I got in that door, I think still, just basically what I said that there has to be a clarity of idea. There has to be a timeline, there has to be evidence that you know how to do what it is that you’re saying you’re going to do, and I think that’s really what people are looking for. I would say the same in the grant environment.
In the clarity of that language, as a writer, that’s something that I know how to do, and I think a lot of artists have to learn how to do maybe more than I had to do because that’s part of the craft of what I do. It’s not ” I play the oboe and I’ve had to learn how to write a grant proposal.” I’m a writer, so I write things and I make things. I would say in terms of the kinds of pitches that the students are doing, when I look back, I would say there’s a lot of advice I could give on the pitching and on the proposals. But maybe just first to acknowledge that, especially for grant language, I would say less than me pitching stories but when I’ve had to write grant language, it is the hardest writing to do.
It’s the hardest kind of writing for me to do because it has to be so super specific, and it has to be so clear and there can’t be any room for any misunderstanding. You have to say what everything is about in a paragraph. It’s just that little nut. It’s really hard, even when you know what the project is, even when you have super clarity. To be able to put it down, it takes a long time. I’ve helped others do that.
Occasionally, when it’s a friend or someone that I work closely with, there are a few people I’ve worked closely with over the years who have asked me, “I have this grant proposal due, can you help fix the proposal? I’ve done a draft of the proposal,” and it can still take days to do the proposal summary of just looking at the language, really asking yourself, just to say what it needs to say.
Are there any extra words, is it clear? Is there a logical progression from sentence to sentence? It’s like playing phrases when you get out the Etude Book. That’s what it is that you’re doing in the grant summary. It’s like an etude exercise, that you have to make this thing and it has to be really perfect.
They’re not always perfect the first time that you hand something in that you need to get a grant. It might not be perfect; it might be less than perfect. It might be a B or a B- even but it’s the best that you can do. Then you’ll get feedback and you’ll put it away. And you’ll take it out again in a week or a month or a year. You’ll look at it with fresh eyes and it’ll be easier to fix.
You’ll know more than you did, you’ll be outside of it and able to maybe tinker with the language. Maybe you will throw it away and start again. Those are all things that we do. That kind of writing, it’s just really challenging, it is really hard. It’s really hard work because everything has to be exactly where it’s supposed to be.
References
Asana. (2020, July 29). How to create a project timeline in 7 simple steps. https://asana.com/resources/create-project-management-timeline-template
Yudkowsky, E. (2015). “Planning fallacy.” In Rationality: From AI to zombies. Machine Intelligence Research Institute.
- https://asana.com/resources/create-project-management-timeline-template ↵
a grant proposal document showing a sequential map of important events, checkpoints, and goals during the grant period from planning to execution
an important milestone(s) for your project
a smaller event that is required for the major event to move forward; see minor event
a smaller event that is required for the major event to move forward; see dependent event
the required progress report(s) to the funder while the project is in progress and at conclusion of project
a checkpoint for the major events required for a project