It was raining that day in Seattle – nah, just kidding! This post is really just to tell you what you may already know: Artist Trust is now using WESTAF’s CaFÉ online application system (www.callforentry.org) to accept and process your applications to our grant programs.

The reason for the change is quite simple. CueRate, the system we were using previously, essentially went out of business. After much research, we decided to begin using the CaFÉ online application system. The choice to go with CaFÉ was based on the reputation for reliability and ease of use that CaFÉ has built over the years. While CaFÉ doesn’t offer everything we could ever want in an online application system (no system really does based on my research), the plusses were too many to pass up. CaFÉ has a good reputation within the artist community as an easy-to-use system; this user-friendly environment is also extended to the administrators’ interface.

The 2012 Fellowship is our first application to use this system. So far so good! I’ve had no objections from applicants thus far, and from my point of view as the system administrator, I am finding my way around it just fine. I am looking forward to further adapting to this new system – in many ways I feel like I’m behind the herd, as many artists and arts organizations have been using this system for some time now.

If you are eligible to apply for the Fellowship this year (2012 is open to Craft, Media, Music and Literary Artists) I encourage you to create your profile on the CaFÉ system and get your application started.

If you have any problems, please access the CaFÉ help section for answers to questions directly related to the technology itself. If you have questions regarding the guidelines, contact me. And please do let me know how you found the system to use! Wishing you the best always.