Art Problems
Bonus Episode: How to Transform Your Grant Applications with Kimberlee Koym-Murteira
22 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
You're listening to the Art Problems Podcast, Episode 108. I'm your host, Hattie Johnson. This is the podcast where we talk about how to get more shows, grants, and residencies. And before we dive into today's episode, I want to let you know about a free info session I'm hosting this Wednesday, February 25th at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time called How to Become a Biennial Artist.
We're going to talk about what it actually takes to get into major exhibitions and how to build the kind of career that actually gets you noticed. You can register at the link in the show notes. Today, I'm talking with artist Kimberly Coyne Mortira, a Bay Area artist who joined Netwerk three years ago, feeling deeply insecure about her writing, despite loving her studio practice.
So she knew that she needed support to win more grants and she'd seen firsthand that when she had some help, She was really successful. And what I think is really remarkable about Kimberly's story is how much she really used the membership. She didn't just passively consume content. She dove into the reviews, asked for feedback constantly.
and built relationships with mentors and peers who fundamentally changed how she documents her work and writes about it. And her applications improved so dramatically that she went from avoiding certain opportunities to applying for major grants like the Guggenheim. She actually won a lot of grants too. So there's a real success there.
We talk about how she gets feedback within hours when she needs it. why AI tools like Grammarly help but can't replace human editors, and how staying focused on her own path instead of competing locally has given her sustained hopefulness, even as six major galleries in the Bay Area have closed.
So if you've ever wondered what it actually looks like to use a creative community to level up your practice, this conversation is really going to shed some light on that for you. Kimberly, welcome to the show. Thank you, Patti. Thank you for having me. I'm really honored. Yeah. Oh, well, I've wanted to talk to you for some time. You have been a member for a while.
Can you tell our listeners how long you've been a Network member for?
Yeah, I've been a member for, I think, about three years now.
Yeah, so I would consider you to be a longtime member. You certainly have some institutional memory. You know all the different phases of NEPHR. What brought you to us?
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Chapter 2: How did Kimberlee Koym-Murteira transform her grant applications?
So. Can you give people just like a sense of what you were struggling with when you joined? Because you saw the masterclass and you joined, but I think it's helpful for people to understand why you felt like you needed to and what problems you thought might be solved.
Yeah, so I love working in the studio and I love always making things and I so self-conscious and insecure about my writing. And so I knew that, that I needed that support and I wanted to win more grants. And I had had the experience of, you know, when, when getting support, like I was successful. And so I just wanted to find more ways to do that on an ongoing basis.
That seems actually really clear. Like when you didn't have support, you were less successful with getting grants. You knew you wanted more grants. When you did have support, you got more. And actually, I would say that in my experience of your experience on network, that has been the case.
Like I think you've definitely sort of steadily improved your grant applications and the language around them. And the grants have come as a result. Does that track with your experience?
Yeah. And feeling more supported, right? Which makes you more confident in what you're applying for. So I've applied for grants that I wasn't going for before. Something that I wasn't even considering before the group, but because so many people were doing it and I was like, yeah, I'll try it. I had a huge learning curve there.
Yeah, well, and that I think brings me to another question, which has to do with your experience of the community, because you use the community a good amount. It sounds to me that when you saw other people doing things and seeing success, like you You are more inclined to do that. Or also, I think, seeing other people, recognizing that also it's not a straight path.
Like sometimes you don't get the grant, but you're not the only one, right? There's also that. So how did you start using the community? And was there a moment where things kind of clicked for you?
Yeah. So there's been a lot of different ways I've been using the community. Most recently, I really enjoyed that, like, I get to know people even in the Bay Area who... You know, like I might have known their work for a while, but I've never had a personal conversation with them. And I will like be on a zoom and be like, Oh, I've known your work for a year. So.
That's really been nice to have a chance to connect with people personally within my region, but also outside of the region is the biggest difference of just getting to know so many different artists and see what they're doing. I see that two people had had this two-person show application that they were working on, and I was really impressed with how it looked and
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Chapter 3: What role does feedback play in improving grant applications?
Yeah. And that it's helped me like realize what I've left out and what would be better to include. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of generosity. There's a lot of generosity.
I mean, I think one thing that's sort of exciting for me to have you on the podcast, like one of the reasons this is exciting is that I've seen the growth of your applications, right? From the first time we were talking about the imaging and the sequencing to now a couple of years later, and it's just like, leagues ahead. You are so much better at it.
And the documentation is, you're right, it's much, much better now. That I think is really exciting to see because it makes a really big difference in terms of how you can present your work and how it's received. So I think one of the things people... can take away from this is that when you have the ability to constantly seek out feedback, your career does really expand.
How long did it take for you to sort of figure out how to use the membership and then also how to like how to make the changes that you needed?
When I started, I started coming to like all the reviews. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Applying like for so many different things and getting feedback all the time. That was that's always been my favorite part is the feedback. But I also spent a long time like going through the videos and, you know, watching training like. trying to acclimate myself to the site. I was doing both.
And the reason why I like the feedback so much is because, you know, so I'm in the Bay Area and lots of different regions are like this. But if somebody doesn't like your stuff, you feel stuck. I feel like now I'm not competing as much against
you know against other people in the bay area as just improving my my work you know getting to focus more deeply on that and i find that gives a lot more hope right that i can just be in my own practice and keep focused on where I'm going instead of, oh, I got that rejection or I got this rejection or I don't get into the place I exactly want.
Yeah, no, I think that's so valuable to be able to focus on where you want to go as opposed to where other people are going because it's not necessarily so relevant to your own career journey anyway. I think you said that the best part of the membership for you has always been the feedback. Where do you get the feedback? You mentioned asks and I think some of the asset reviews.
Is there anywhere else? Because I know you spend time like in collectives, you're a very active member.
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Chapter 4: What are the benefits of being part of a creative community?
Right? Yeah, when I put something on ask, or if I'm like, have a deadline coming up, and I'm trying to get feedback really quickly, I will tag them and, and then I'll get feedback within a couple of hours. And then I have one person who has always been looking at my images, who's a mentor in the program, Candice. And she is so anyway, so Candice.
She's amazing.
Yeah, she reviews a lot of my images, and then making it really helped me become a better writer. And just that I'm like, Oh, Macon would say that's like not not specific enough to general to general.
Yeah, yeah.
Like making on my shoulder, like I've worked with her more independently. too, like, you know, outside of the membership, just a little extra, which I think I've really benefited from, like just having that extra writing support, which actually I was looking for that for years.
I guess there are people who are not like this and leave things the last moment, but I've never sent that, you know, sent in an application that has been like, Like where I haven't needed some feedback, like almost immediately when I asked for it. So to have that, I think is really, really helpful. Now you use, I think you use AI a decent amount too, to help with some of the writing.
Is that correct?
Yeah. I'm using Grammarly at the moment. Yeah. Yeah. I got a chat GBT like through the university I teach at. I haven't really broken into that. Grammarly has brought up my confidence in like the grammar part of the writing, but it also, it takes out the details, right? Well, that's the thing.
That was kind of why I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the use of AI, because I personally have found too that like, it's so helpful to
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