CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Daniel Roumain and Dread Scott at the 2013 Creative Capital benefit and auction; still from Miwa Matreyek’s “This World Made Itself;” Creative Capital board member and gallerist Ronald Feldman with a stereoscopic viewer made by artist Eve Sussman; “Edge of Twilight 5,” 2010, by Connie Samaras; still from Kristina Wong’s “Going Green the Wong Way;” “Heizer Detroit City Complex,” 2014, by Edgar Arceneaux

Creative Capital was the subject of a feature article by Michael Ventre in the Summer 2014 issue of Los Angeles Confidential Magazine. See below for a short excerpt and click here to read the full article online.

… Creative Capital supports artists by using venture-capital principles. Each year it sorts through applications from creative types in a wide variety of art disciplines and hands out grants of up to $50,000 in direct funding. But it doesn’t cut ties as soon as the check clears. Instead, Creative Capital provides development services and support, working with artists over a period of months—even years—to ensure that they can attain their visions.

“We’re interested in helping people build sustainable careers,” notes Ruby Lerner, president and executive director of Creative Capital, which was born in 1999. “We want people to be comfortable doing PR, marketing, fundraising, and talking about their work. We do hands-on training around those issues.”

Before the genesis of Creative Capital, Lerner had been working for an organization that helped independent film and video makers. In the mid to late ’90s, when politics forced the National Endowment for the Arts to stop funding individual artists, a need was created. Thanks to generous assistance from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Creative Capital blossomed. The Warhol folks continue to provide half of Creative Capital’s $3 million in yearly funding, the other half coming from private donations and small foundations.

Jeffrey Soros is an LA-based board member with a background in screenwriting and producing who says the organization’s approach to finding the most worthy grantees is to “cast as broad a net as possible.”

“Our mix of geography and discipline is pretty robust in terms of diversity,” he explains. “We’ve developed a reputation for championing works that push the envelope. That’s why we’re in business.” …

Read the full article on la-confidential-magazine.com.