The IAO Accelerator program is designed to support socially engaged practices in the field of perfumery and olfactory culture, on a global scale.
ANNOUNCING THE SELECTED PROJECTS FOR THE 2021 IAO ACCELERATOR
The Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO) is pleased to announce the Awardees for the 2021 IAO Accelerator program. Due to a tie in the scores, we are awarding the IAO accelerator to two initiatives in 2021, our inaugural year.
BLACKPERFUMERS.COM
Led by Elle in New Orleans, Blackperfumers.com has as its goal to (1) promote Black perfumers as an expected presence rather than as an anomaly in niche and mainstream perfume outlets and platforms around the world. Further goals include (2) to inspire STEM educators to introduce Perfumery to Black youth in schools as a potential career choice where they can explore arts, design, and science, and (3) to make the contributions from the global Black diaspora in the evolution of contemporary fragrance more visible to perfume wearers and perfume producers. An emerging perfumer herself, Elle seeks to build bridges while promoting inclusivity and diversity awareness in the global and niche Perfumery industry.
SCRATCH’N’SNIFF OPEN DATABASE
Led by Jas Brooks in Chicago, this project aims to create a public database of scratch and sniff books. It’s meant to (1) provide information for researchers, authors, and parents interested in purchasing and analyzing existing books or producing their own work, as well as (2) take into consideration olfactory engagement for blind or visually impaired persons (BVIP) – much like tactile graphics, but for smell. This is inspired by the handful of literature (McGee and Tompkins, 1982; Brown, 1972; Miller, 1985; Irwin, 2018) exploring the use of scratch and sniff for blind and visually impaired children from the perspective of educators and parents.
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WHAT’S NEXT?
The awardees will be provided with a start-up stipend of $1,000.00 each, as well as business, legal, and technical assistance from individuals identified by the awardees and the IAO as being potentially helpful to their specific needs.
We invite the larger perfume community to join us in supporting Elle and Jas to bring their projects to light. We need particular assistance with:
+ Identifying and connecting with perfume materials producers in Africa and the broader Black Diaspora communities
+ Technical perfumery and microencapsulation
+ Donations of old scratch and sniff books
Please contact saskia@artandolfaction.com if you would like to lend a hand.
THE IAO ACCELERATOR PROGRAM
This Institute for Art and Olfaction Accelerator program is an annual program that rewards a project or initiative designed to further access and social equity in the field of fragrance.
This accelerator is designed to assist initiatives and individuals whose work is devoted to inclusive practices that are reflective of the global and historical diversity in perfume and scent practices. Awardees will be decided by a selection committee made up of industry and cultural experts.
Accelerator applications review committee:
Rubia Chaudri
Julianne Lee
Minetta Rogers
Lakenda Wallace
Saskia WIlson-Brown
Awardees will be offered:
+ A six (6) month learning fellowship at the IAO for the designated project leader (including free access to all applicable* classes and talks)
+ Up to USD$1,000.00 in fiscal support for the initiative’s start-up costs
+ Three (3) one-on-one consulting sessions with experts in the field of perfumery, non-profit, fundraising, business, design, marketing, website development and other relevant sectors.
+ Two (2) opportunities to present research and results to the greater IAO community.
+ Marketing promotion and assistance in the form of email blast inclusion, website inclusion, and social media support.
+ Ongoing support post-fellowship, as part of a working group
Expectations of Awardees:
+ Awardee(s) will be asked to produce a document at the end of the accelerator program that summarizes their learnings or actions.
+ Awardee(s) will be expected to provide receipts for costs incurred, up to USD$1,000.00 USD.
+ Where appropriate, awardee(s) will be asked to adhere to the IAO’s policy of information-sharing and attribution by disseminating the results of their research through open source attribution and licensing.
+ Awardee(s) will agree to cross-promotion and logo inclusion in marketing related to the selected project.
+ Awardee(s) will agree to present their work to the public in an online event at two stages of the project.
+ We hope awardees will continue engagement in the program post-fellowship, by assisting with selection and mentorship of future fellows.
* This does not include the bi-annual intensive with Spyros Drosopoulos. Materials for classes, when necessary, must be purchased independently by the awardee.
SUBMISSION CRITERIA
This accelerator program will be an initiative that rewards projects or initiatives designed to further access and social equity in the field of fragrance. From the pool of applications, awardees will be selected on an annual basis by a selection committee made up of industry and cultural experts. They will be supported with mentorship, access to perfume education, business or organizational consulting, and fiscal support for start-up costs (up to $1,000.00 USD).
We will accept submissions from individual artists, perfumers, collectives, non-profit organizations, or companies with 3 full-time employees or less. Submissions may be made from anywhere in the world, so long as there is internet access.
Submissions proposals will be for a project or initiative that engages in the perfume world by furthering inclusive practices and access in the field. Projects should be community-oriented in nature, and can be both in the for-profit or non-profit sector.
Submissions must seek to address diversity and representation in the following action areas:
+ Production in contemporary perfume and related aromatic expressions
+ Distribution in contemporary perfume and related aromatic expressions
+ Historical research
+ Contemporary cultural research
+ Environmental and aromatic resources
TIMELINE
Applications for the 2021 program have closed. Our selection committee will assess the projects between Nov. 19 and 25 based on the following factors:
+ Benefit to Applicant: Will the Accelerator program provide clear benefit for the applicant?
+ Benefit to Community: Will this project benefit the community it wishes to serve?
+ Project Feasibility: Is this a project that has a good chance of succeeding, once the Accelerator is over?
+ Project Originality: Is this a new idea, and something that will address an issue that has not been adequately addressed by existing projects?
+ Project Urgency: Is this something that needs to happen to the exclusion of all else? Does this project need to happen now?
We may follow up for a Zoom or phone interview, should the selection committee have questions. We will announce the selected project(s) publicly between Dec. 1 and Dec. 5.
BACK STORY
The Institute for Art and Olfaction was set up to create access to a field that had heretofore been inaccessible to the majority of humans on this planet.
+ Read our mission, here
+ Read our founding statement, here
Since the non-profit began in 2012, this inaccessibility has changed: more people are teaching, more information is online, and thanks to like-minded organizations around the world there is no shortage of access to information and materials.
However, there are still steep barriers to full representation in perfumery. These barriers are manifold, and complex, and include financial and cultural mechanisms of exclusion. On ample evidence in contemporary cultural artifacts, this blinkered narrative about who makes perfume and what they look like creates the incorrect impression that perfumery is a mono-cultural field.
This cultural myopia, when combined with deep social inequality and systematized racism, results an industry that is not representative of the multiplicity of our world; that consistently messages that it is exclusive, expensive, and European.
In addition to being damaging, discouraging, and out of step, this vision of perfume does not reflect the actual history of perfume as a practice. As countless academics and historians have shown through deliberate research, perfumery (which we at the IAO define as the intentional combination of aromatics for a pre-determined result) has been implemented in some form by all people, on all continents, across time. Have a look at our database-in-progress linking to research in the field.
The IAO is committed to making change in the field by tackling the systems that perpetuate exclusion. In addition to our ongoing work on Open Sourcing Smell Culture, we are pleased to announce a new initiative: The IAO Accelerator Program.
QUESTIONS? Email us at hello@artandolfaction.com.