Over the past few decades, arts funding has moved to a more organizationally based model, leaving individual artists with fewer options to support their work. And funding in general is tight lately — witness the current proposal to decimate Pennsylvania Council on the Arts funding (www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A95389). 

Nonetheless, there are still grant opportunities out there for artists seeking support from government arts agencies, private foundations and other nonprofits. The trick is taking advantage of them.

One local opportunity to learn how is scheduled for Sat., June 11, as Silver Eye Center for Photography offers a day-long workshop called Grant and Proposal Writing for Artists. The class, to be held at Pittsburgh Filmmakers' headquarters, in North Oakland, promises to guide participants "through every stage of successful grant writing."

The focus is on photographers and visual artists. The three teachers, Mary Navarro, Renee Piechocki and Ellen Fleurov, are experts in the grant-seeking (and -making) field.

Navarro, a fundraising consultant and adjunct Carnegie Mellon faculty member, was formerly a grantmaker for the Heinz Endowments. Recent consulting clients have included the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, The Heinz Endowments, the Carnegie Museum of Art and Point Park University.

Piechocki directs Pittsburgh's Office of Public Art (run by the City of Pittsburgh and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council) and is an artist herself.

And Fleurov is executive director of the Silver Eye Center, and has long experience as a grant writer for museums and other arts venues; she's also served as a grant panelist and site reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts, among other organizations.

The instructors will take participants through planning, researching and crafting letters of inquiry; writing narratives; and budgeting, packaging and submitting proposals.

The workshop runs 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sat., June 11 and is limited to 30 students. The cost is $70, or $55 for Silver Eye members (and for those who mention they got this info from CP's arts blog). Scholarships are also available.

To register, or with questions, call Silver Eye education coordinator Aaron Blum at 412-431-1810 or see www.silvereye.org/programs.