A FUND FOR NEW WORK DEADLINES HOW TO APPLY CWF RECIPIENTS CWF LEAD ARTISTS WHO IS INVITED FAQ SEMINARS FORMS CONTACT US

The Creative Work Fund invites artists and nonprofit organizations to create new art works through collaborations. It celebrates the role of artists as problem solvers and the making of art as a profound contribution to intellectual inquiry and to the strengthening of communities.

The Fund gives equal consideration to:

• Collaborations between artists and arts organizations
• Collaborations between artists and non-arts community organizations (youth, human services, educational, environmental, among others)

Four principles guide the Fund:

• Artists’ creativity merits philanthropic support
• Individual creativity is the source of cultural richness and diversity
• The arts can be a powerful vehicle for problem solving and community renewal
• Collaborative efforts among artists, organizations and their constituents can generate a productive exchange of ideas and bring the arts to new audiences

Photographer Susan Schwartzenberg collaborated with lead artist Elise Brewster and the San Francisco Estuary Institute to create the Bay Boards project.

Responding to several years of declining support for artists and new art works, The Columbia Foundation, Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Miriam and Peter Haas Fund, and Walter and Elise Haas Fund launched the Creative Work Fund in September 1994.  Since its inception, the Fund has awarded $5.9 million in grants for collaborations between artists and organizations to create new art works.

Currently, the Creative Work Fund is a program of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund that is also supported by generous grants from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and The James Irvine Foundation.

The Fund is slowly expanding its geographic range and, in 2008, it will invite letters of inquiry from artists and organizations in Monterey, San Mateo, and Santa Cruz for the first time.  In all, it will award approximately $650,000 in grants to nonprofit organizations and collaborating literary or performing artists.

• Literary artists include those with experience writing poetry, spoken word poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction.  (Playwrights apply with performing artists.)
• Performing artists may be creators—such as playwrights, choreographers, and composers—or may be performers. The performing arts encompass dance, opera, performance art, theater, and vocal and instrumental music

Grants in both categories will range from $10,000 to $40,000 and will be awarded in September 2008.  Projects are expected to be completed within two years, but those of longer duration will be considered.

See How to Apply for explicit instructions.