The Creative Work Fund awards grants that range in size from $10,000 to $40,000 for projects in which artists and nonprofit organizations are working closely together to create new art works. Any kind of nonprofit organization is eligible to apply to collaborate with an artist. The Fund takes the idea of a close working relationship between the artist and the organization very seriously and specifically wants to support the creation stage for a new art work.
The Fund has three criteria a lead artist must meet: geographic location, artistic background, and not being a recent Creative Work Fund recipient.
What’s a lead artist?: The lead artist is a person who meets the criteria outlined below, is playing a central role in creating the proposed art work, and who is not a regular staff member or board member of the applying nonprofit organization. Many projects feature more than one artist working in a team or ensemble, but only one of those artists should be identified as the “lead artist.”
Geography: The lead artist must live and have lived for the previous two years in one or more of the following counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, or Stanislaus County. In that two-year time period, it is acceptable to move among the eligible counties. The Fund also has considered applications from artists who have had temporary, short-term artist residencies outside of the 14 eligible areas but maintained a home base within them.
Artistic background: Each year, the Creative Work Fund invites artists in two broadly-defined artistic categories to apply. To be eligible for grants to be awarded in June 2012, the project’s lead artist must be a media artist or performing artist. The Creative Work Fund defines these categories as follows:
Media artists create narrative, documentary, animated, or experimental time-based works using audio, digital, film, and/or video media. Computer arts also are included in this category. (Please note that the Fund considers still photography in its visual arts category.)
Performing artists create or execute work in dance, opera, performance art, theater, and vocal and instrumental music. (Please note that the Fund considers spoken word artists in its literary arts category.)
A media or performing arts Creative Work Fund project may culminate in any form, but it must feature a lead artist with a strong track record as a media artist or performing artist. (For example, a composer might collaborate with a nonprofit film producer to create a film rather than working with a chamber ensemble. Such a partnership would fit the Fund’s performing arts guidelines because of the track record of the lead artist.)
Concerning prior recipients: Lead artists who received Creative Work Fund grants in August 2009, July 2010, or October 2011 are not eligible to re-apply in December 2011 as lead artists.
Lead artists who received Creative Work Fund grants prior to August 2009 must have completed their projects and submitted their final reports.
An artist who played a role in a previously-supported Creative Work Fund project but who was not the lead artist may apply as a lead artist for a 2011-12 request.
All of the above criteria apply to an artist who wants to be considered for an ArtPlace/Creative Work Fund grant.
Concurrent applications: If a lead artist has a strong track record as a media artist and as a performing artist, that artist may submit one letter in each category for two different projects. Even if both proposals are wonderful, the Creative Work Fund will not invite full proposals from both of them.
The fund has three criteria for eligibility of nonprofit organizations: nonprofit status, geography, and role in a previously funded projects or concurrent applications.
Nonprofit status: Any kind of 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization may apply (but not a private foundation). A recognized religious organization, even if it does not have 501 (c) (3) status, may apply. A public agency (such as a parks department, health department, or public school) may apply.
A nonprofit organization that clearly fills a charitable or educational purpose but does not have nonprofit status may apply with a nonprofit fiscal sponsor. Some public agencies (e.g. the Oakland Recreation and Parks Department) also have applied using fiscal sponsors.
Geography: The nonprofit organization must be based in one of the following counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, or Stanislaus.
The Fund will consider applications from international, national, or statewide organizations that have offices and staffs in one or more of the 14 eligible counties.
Concerning prior recipients: Nonprofit organizations that received Creative Work Fund grants in August 2009, July 2010, or October 2011 are not eligible to re-apply in December 2011.
Nonprofit organizations that received Creative Work Fund grants prior to August 2009 are eligible to apply if they have completed their projects and submitted final narrative and financial reports.
All of the above criteria apply to organizations that want to apply with artists for ArtPlace/Creative Work Fund grants.
Fiscal sponsors may be part of applications at any time, even if they received a Creative Work Fund grant recently or if a report is outstanding.
Concurrent applications: If it is otherwise eligible, a nonprofit organization may submit one letter of inquiry in media arts and one letter of inquiry in the performing arts. They must be for different projects and, even if both were wonderful, the Creative Work Fund will not invite full proposals from both of them.
There is no limit on the number of applications that may be submitted using a particular fiscal sponsor.
For projects beginning the application process in December 2011, grants will be awarded in June 2012. If a project already has begun by the time a grant would be awarded, the artist and the nonprofit organization should still be actively involved in the new work’s creation and collaborating with one another after the date when grants are awarded.
The Creative Work Fund prefers that projects receiving grants in 2012 be completed by late 2014, but projects of longer duration will be considered (and are not jeopardized by needing more time).
Three places on the Creative Work Fund Website can introduce you to previously funded projects:
Culminating events and publications are presented in “Recent News”
The “Funded Projects” section of the Creative Work Fund Website provides a comprehensive list of all 238 previously-funded projects.
A selection of lead artists with detailed profiles of selected projects may be found under “Lead Artists” at http://wwww.creativeworkfund.org/artists/html.