A Foundation's 20-Year Experiment in Art and Civic Engagement

Setting The Stage

Each year, the Creative Work Fund invites artists to team up with nonprofit partners and submit letters of inquiry in two of five broadly defined categories—literary, media, performing, traditional/folk, or visual arts. Professionals in the invited disciplines evaluate the letters of inquiry, and 25–30 artist/nonprofit partnerships in each disciplinary category are eligible to submit detailed proposals. A national, five-member grants panel reviews these proposals, which include work samples from the artists, and each panel recommends between six and nine projects for funding. The maximum grant amount is $40,000.

The Creative Work Fund’s mission is to encourage genuine, challenging collaborations and creation of new artworks. It was originally designed to respond to declining local and federal resources for artists. Program elements were meant to help artists (two-thirds of any grant must be spent on artists’ fees and their direct expenses for making the artwork), to assert that artists should be paid to fulfill their purpose (making art), and to strengthen their networks (through collaborations).

While the artist was the program’s primary focus, the Fund hoped that the collaborative projects might bring the arts to new audiences, engage with the nonprofit partners’ constituents, or draw attention to community needs. Civic engagement was not named as specific goal, but collaborative practice has drawn a number of Creative Work Fund grantees into civic life—their work has identified community concerns, fostered debate, and influenced public systems.