Apply For A Grant

Eligibility

Creative Work Fund projects feature one or more artists collaborating with 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organizations.  The Fund encourages the artists and organizations to “come together” for the sake of this collaboration:  An artist should not submit a request to collaborate with an organization if he or she serves on its staff or board of directors.

The Fund encourages artists to collaborate with nonprofit organizations of all kinds. 

The principal collaborating artists must live in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, or Stanislaus County and have lived there for at least two years prior to submitting a letter of inquiry.  Collaborating organizations also must be based in one of the 14 counties.

For the next Creative Work Fund deadline (to be announced in December 2010), interested literary and traditional artists and collaborating organizations will be invited to submit three-page letters of inquiry.  A literary or traditional arts project may culminate in any form, but it must feature a lead artist with a strong track record as a literary artist or a traditional artist.  The Creative Work Fund defines these eligible artists as:

• Literary artists include those with experience writing poetry, spoken word poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. (Playwrights apply with performing artists.)

• Traditional artists create in art forms learned as part of the cultural life of a group of people whose members have a common ethnic heritage, language, religion, occupation, or region. These expressions are deeply rooted in and reflect a community’s shared standards of beauty, values, or life experiences. Often they are learned orally or by emulation. Traditional artists may excel as individual artists, work as a group, or work collectively. They may produce works in a variety of forms—oral traditions, performances, crafts, multi-disciplinary works, and others.

In either category, artists and organizations should plan projects and prepare and sign letters of inquiry together.  If project partners plan to use a fiscal sponsor, that sponsor also should review and sign the letter.

Artists and organizations may submit one proposal per category per deadline and may receive no more than one Creative Work Fund grant every three years.  (For 2011 consideration, artists and organizations that received Creative Work Fund grants in September 2008, July 2009, or July 2010 are ineligible.)

Past Creative Work Fund grant recipients who are reapplying also must have finished their projects and completed approved final reports before submitting new letters of inquiry.

The Fund seeks:

• Projects in which the creation of an artwork is central
• Projects in which the artist functions primarily as an artist, not as a teacher, an art therapist, or in another capacity
• Projects in which an active, authentic working partnership between the artist or artists and the organization is central to the work’s development
• Projects that engage the organization’s constituents in the artist’s work
• Projects that draw upon artists’ creativity and problem-solving abilities
• Projects through which the making of art can strengthen a community, draw attention to an important issue, or engage audiences in new ways
• Projects that challenge artistic imagination and organizational thinking
• Projects that will be presented in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, or Stanislaus County
• Projects that designate at least two-thirds of the grant funds to the principal artists and their direct expenses for creating the work.

The Fund will not consider:

• Commissions of new works by artists in which the applicant organization and artists are not collaboratively engaged in the making of those works
• Projects in which the lead artists and collaborating organization are not based in the eligible counties or those with multiple artists, most of whom are based outside of the 14 counties
• Projects that do not feature the artist(s) centrally as demonstrated by the project descriptions and budget allocations
• Projects from lead artists or organizations that were awarded Creative Work Fund grants in September 2008, July 2009, or July 2010
• Projects from artists or organizations that have not completed projects and final reports for previously awarded Creative Work Fund projects

Further consideration:

Applicants that are receiving significant grants (for the very same project) from The James Irvine Foundation or The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, or that have been awarded a commissioning grant from the Wallace Alexander Gerbode and The William and Flora Hewlett foundations are less likely to be supported.

How to Apply