Support Creative Capital Through Our Benefit & Auction

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Editor

Paul Shambroom, 75mm M51 Skysweeper anti-aircraft gun, American Legion Post 127, Buford, Georgia

For Creative Capital’s annual Benefit & Auction, we’re auctioning off 15 artworks by our amazing grantees, beginning with online bidding through 5:00pm on May 10 and continuing with live and silent auctions that evening at our Benefit party at the Tribeca home of Paige West. All proceeds benefit Creative Capital’s mission of supporting artists pursuing adventurous projects in all disciplines. Here’s a preview of a few of the outstanding works you can purchase:

Paul Shambroom (2001 Visual Arts) donated 75mm M51 Skysweeper anti-aircraft gun, American Legion Post 127, Buford, Georgia, from his most recent series of photographs, SHRINES: Public Weapons in America. In the Shrines series Shambroom—who describes himself as a photographer who examines American power and culture—explores what happens to weapons of war when they survive both combat and the scrapheap to be given second lives as public monuments. Continue reading →

Check Out Our New Database of Artists’ Projects “On Our Radar”

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Ruby Lerner

This month Creative Capital launched On Our Radar, a new searchable database of noteworthy artists’ projects. On Our Radar currently features a wide range of Film/Video and Visual Arts projects that advanced past the first round of our grant application process last year, but were not ultimately awarded grants.

We invite you to explore On Our Radar to discover an impressive array of artists’ projects in Visual Arts and Film/Video. Visitors to our website can search On Our Radar by the artist’s medium, discipline and geography. Included are nearly 400 projects from artists in 37 states, in disciplines ranging from documentary, experimental, animated and narrative film to sculpture, public art, contemporary crafts and interdisciplinary work in the visual arts.

In each grant round, Creative Capital has the great privilege of learning about a wealth of exciting projects, but we are only able to award grants to a small percentage of the applicants. In 2011, we received nearly 3,250 Letters of Inquiry and awarded 46 grants. To review the artists’ submissions, we enlist nearly 100 arts professionals who serve as readers, evaluators and panelists. All Letters of Inquiry are scored by two readers based on how excited the reader is by the idea; by the artistic vision and the project’s potential for impact; the professional capabilities of the applicant; the feasibility of the project; and the potential for our funding and services to have an impact on the artist and project. Continue reading →

Partnering with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to Bring a New Program to Life

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Editor

The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation (DDCF) has been a major supporter of Creative Capital’s core grantmaking program since 2000, and has been the largest single funder of all our classes of Performing Arts grantees. DDCF is also the lead funder of the MAP Fund, an ancillary program of Creative Capital, and recently selected Creative Capital to partner with them to launch and oversee the new Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards Program, which announced its first class of grantees today. This program offers significant funding—up to $275,000 per selected artist—that is not tied to individual projects and is instead available for extended professional and artistic development, audience development and retirement planning. Creative Capital’s President & Executive Director, Ruby Lerner, sat down with Ben Cameron, DDCF’s Program Director for the Arts, to talk about this exciting new program and the partnership between Creative Capital and DDCF.

Ruby Lerner: This partnership to launch the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards (DDPAA) is an extraordinary expansion on our long-standing relationship, and it’s an honor for Creative Capital that DDCF would entrust such an important program to us. Why did DDCF choose Creative Capital as a partner?

Ben Cameron: As you know, all of us at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation have long admired the work of Creative Capital. We have been especially moved by Creative Capital’s ability to work with artists on an individually tailored basis, responding to each unique set of artistic needs; the way in which your organization listens to its grantees; its responsive, rather than proscriptive, orientation; and the value it places on learning. Panelists we have gathered over the years to review funding applications from Creative Capital have consistently described your work as “transformative philanthropy”—words that perfectly encapsulate our own hopes with this program. Your openness to learn, to evolve and to adapt as you learn more perfectly align with the learning adventure that we know lies ahead with this program. Continue reading →

A Professional Development Workshop for Spanish-Speaking Artists

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Ela Troyano

As a Creative Capital grantee selected in Film/Video in the first grant year (2000) and an Artist Leader for the Professional Development Program (PDP) since its inception in 2003, I’ve watched PDP grow from an idea and a radical experiment into a fully realized, successful program that has already changed our arts culture. Being a bi-lingual, bi-cultural filmmaker, born in Cuba and raised in New York City, the need for a Spanish-language PDP workshop was a no-brainer for me. When presented with the opportunity to work with Creative Capital’s staff to develop and lead a one-day professional development workshop for Spanish-speaking artists, I immediately jumped on board.

PDP’s new Taller Profesional de Desarollo para Artistas workshop includes lectures on Strategic Planning and creating a Business Plan; breakout groups on Verbal Communications and Art Business Management; and an interactive exercise on Targeted Marketing—all geared to Spanish-speaking artists who often work in different countries and cultures. Continue reading →

More Than Money Can Buy: What Do Artists Need to Succeed? (Part One)

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Ruby Lerner

Ruby Lerner and Sean Elwood in stakeholder meeting with grantee Cory Arcangel (2006 Emerging Fields)

You may think of Creative Capital as an organization that gives grants to artists, but that’s only one part of the picture. We do award grants for artists’ projects, and we are thrilled to be able to provide artists with financial support! On the other hand, money alone doesn’t guarantee success. We’ve learned the importance of services and resources for artists, such as professional advice, contacts, networking and coaching.

Creative Capital’s approach pairs funding with advisory services and other non-monetary support for our grantees, including consultations with our Artist Services staff, access to our network of arts consultants, Artist Retreats, phone-in clinics and promotional activities. Continue reading →

Help us cover the map!

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Editor

Looking for inspiration this holiday season?

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Editor

For the artists and art lovers on your gift list, check out ARTBOOK’s Creative Capital store and get a 25% discount as a friend of Creative Capital! You’ll be supporting Creative Capital’s artists, and a portion of the proceeds from your purchase will benefit Creative Capital.

Among the books featuring Creative Capital artists that you’ll find on ARTBOOK are Eve Sussman & The Rufus Corporation: The Rape of the Sabine Women; Paul Shambroom: Picturing Power; Deborah Faye Lawrence: Dee-Dee Does Utopia; Conrad Bakker: Objects & Economies, Untitled Projects 1997-2007; and Mark Tribe: The Port Huron Project, Reenactments Of New Left Protest Speeches.

Visit ARTBOOK’s Creative Capital store

Seven Outstanding Blogs Receive 2011 Arts Writers Grants

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Kareem Estefan

Printeresting blog, a 2011 Arts Writers Grant recipient

Yesterday, the Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program announced the twenty recipients of our 2011 grant for writing on contemporary art, in four categories: articles, blogs, books and short-form writing. You can see the full list of grantees on our website and read more about the writers and their projects here. But since you’re reading this on The Lab, we’d like to focus especially on the seven blogs that received grants this year (up from previous years).

Filmmaker and writer Valerie Soe’s beyondasiaphilia covers a range of topics in visual art, film and activism; one recent post focused on artists in San Francisco grappling with the possibilities of a “new gift economy.”

Printeresting, a blog by Jason Urban, R.L. Tillman and Amze Emmons, showcases contemporary printmaking. This year’s jurors were struck by the elegant digital design of a forum that advocates for the analog, and they especially loved the title. Continue reading →

Artists and Organizations, Experimenting Together

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Ruby Lerner

Ruby Lerner, Erika Blumenfeld, Mark Shepard and Pamela Z at IdeaFestival. Photo by Bill Wine, Louisville Voice-Tribune.

Welcome to The Lab, Creative Capital’s new blog exploring the creative process! Since artists and arts organizations thrive on experimentation, our blog will delve into the work-in-progress of the artists we support and share the evolution of Creative Capital as a laboratory for artist services.

Part of my job as President of Creative Capital is to spread the word about what we have learned from working with groundbreaking artists over the past 12 years and to share ideas about how we can enable the creative process to flourish.

In September, I had the pleasure of presenting at IdeaFestival in Louisville with an inspiring group of Creative Capital artists: Erika Blumenfeld, Shih-Chieh Huang, Richard Pell, Mark Shepard and Pamela Z. Continue reading →

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Category Archives: PERMANENT LABORATORY: Creative Capital Programs