Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has committed over $50 million in project funding and advisory support to 631 projects representing 783 artists and has worked with thousands more artists across the country through workshops and other resources. One of the "most prestigious art grants in the country," their yearly Creative Capital Awards application is open to artists in over 40 different disciplines spanning the visual arts, performing arts, moving image, literature, technology, and socially-engaged art. Their stated mission is to “amplify the voices of artists working in all creative disciplines and catalyze connections to help them realize their visions and build sustainable practices.”

History

During the "culture wars" of the 1990s, the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

's (NEA) cut funding for individual artists. In response, Arch Gillies of the

Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

spearheaded the creation of a new organization that would directly fund individual artists. Creative Capital began in 1999 with Ruby Lerner as Founding Director. The announcement of the organization appeared on the front page of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', noting that Creative Capital would "actively advocate freedom of expression" and "support artists who challenge convention." In its first year, Creative Capital launched by selecting 75 artists to receive the Creative Capital Award. In 2002, the organization launched their first Artist Retreat at Skowhegan School of Painting. This in-person meeting of artists and professionals became a core part of Creative Capital's model, allowing for an exchange of ideas and as well as a platform to spark new connections within the community. Creative Capital has supported many artists whose projects have become well recognized in their fields and beyond, including

Paul Beatty Paul Beatty (born June 9, 1962) is an American author and an associate professor of writing at Columbia University. In 2016, he won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Booker Prize for his novel '' The Sellout''. It was the first tim ...

’s '' The Sellout'',

Yance Ford Yance Ford () is an African-American transgender producer and director. Life and career Ford graduated from Hamilton College in 1994. Beginning in 2002 he worked as a series producer at PBS for ten years. In 2011 he was named one of ''Filmmaker ...

’s '' Strong Island'', Bill Morrison’s ''

Decasia ''Decasia'' is a 2002 American collage film by Bill Morrison, featuring an original score by Michael Gordon. In 2013, ''Decasia'' was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures for preservation in the United States National Film Regi ...

'', Bandaloop's ''Crossing'', Sam Van Aken’s ''

Tree of 40 Fruit A Tree of 40 Fruit is one of a series of fruit trees created by the Syracuse University Professor Sam Van Aken using the technique of grafting. Each tree produces forty types of stone fruit, of the genus ''Prunus'', ripening sequentially from Ju ...

s'', Jae Rhim Lee’s ''Infinity Burial Project'',

Maggie Nelson Maggie Nelson (born 1973) is an American writer. She has been described as a genre-busting writer defying classification, working in autobiography, art criticism, theory, feminism, queerness, sexual violence, the history of the avant-garde, aes ...

’s ''

The Argonauts ''The Argonauts'' is a book by poet and critic Maggie Nelson, published in 2015. It mixes philosophical theory with memoir. The book discusses her romantic relationship with the transgender artist Harry Dodge leading to her pregnancy as well as t ...

'', as well as early works by artists like Taylor Mac,

Sanford Biggers Sanford Biggers (born 1970 in Los Angeles) is a Harlem-based interdisciplinary artist who works in film/video, installation, sculpture, music, and performance.

Laura Poitras Laura Poitras (; born February 2, 1964) is an American director and producer of documentary films. Poitras has received numerous awards for her work, including the 2015 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for '' Citizenfour'', about Ed ...

, and Jeffrey Gibson. In 2019, Creative Capital celebrated their 20th anniversary, announcing a yearly award and retreat cycle. In partnership with the ''

Los Angeles Review of Books The ''Los Angeles Review of Books'' (''LARB'' is a literary review magazine covering the national and international book scenes. A preview version launched on Tumblr in April 2011, and the official website followed one year later in April 2012. ...

'', Creative Capital invited several writers to examine projects from each award cycle year in the organization's first two decades.

Creative Capital Awards

Through an open application process, Creative Capital identifies and selects artists from all disciplines to receive the Creative Capital Award. The award gives each project access to $50,000 in direct funding allocated at key intervals in project development, combined with additional mentorship and advisory services. While there were a total of 12 award cycles from 2000 to 2019, in 2019 for their 20th anniversary, Creative Capital announced a new annual award cycle.

Philanthropic Model and Artist Services

Creative Capital calls for artists to submit their project ideas through a free and open application for the Creative Capital Awards. After selecting artists for the awards, the organization applies a venture philanthropy model to help those artists develop their projects with funding, professional development, and advisory services, including artist coaching, communications and promotion, strategic planning, and legal and financial counsel. The award gives artists access to a series of gatherings, like the Artist Retreat, designed to connect them with a community of artists and professionals who can help realize and present their work at venues and organizations all over the world. Creative Capital's approach centers on the idea that time and advisory services are as important to the creative process as money. As awardees' funded projects develop, Creative Capital staff meet with them to set goals and chart progress. Creative Capital provides funding at benchmark moments for each project, including initial funding, support to build the artist's personal and professional capacity, follow-up support for project production, funding for the project's premiere, and support for the project's expansion after its premiere. Of this type of support, Sheryl Oring, a Creative Capital Awardee, has said, "For mid-career artists like me, Creative Capital can help make the difference between whether we keep making art or give up."

Creative Capital Award recipients

Notable awardees include

Performing Arts Performing arts works funded by Creative Capital often blur the genres, including musical performance, theater, comedy, puppetry, dance, jazz, and multimedia installation. Notable projects include James Scruggs's ''3/Fifths'', Robin Frohardt's ''The Plastic Bag Store'', Kyle Abraham's ''Dearest Home'', Nick Cave's ''Drop'', Taylor Mac's ''The Lily’s Revenge'', and Young Jean Lee's ''Lear''. *

Nick Cave Nicholas Edward Cave (born 22 September 1957) is an Australian singer, songwriter, poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, composer and occasional actor. Known for his baritone voice and for fronting the rock band Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, ...

Raja Feather Kelly Raja Feather Kelly is an American dancer and choreographer based in Brooklyn who is notable for his "radical downtown surrealist" productions which combine "pop and queer culture". He has choreographed numerous theatrical productions, including ' ...

Vijay Iyer Vijay Iyer (born October 26, 1971) is an American composer, pianist, bandleader, producer and writer based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' has called him a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, histori ...

* Meredith Monk * Taylor Mac *

Du Yun Du Yun (traditional Chinese: 杜韻, simplified Chinese: 杜韵) is a Chinese-born American composer, performer, vocalist and performance artist. She won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her opera ''Angel's Bone'', with libretto by Royce ...

Ralph Lemon Ralph Lemon (born August 1, 1952 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American choreographer, company director, writer, visual artist and a conceptualist. Raised in a religious environment, he developed his artistic creativity as a child.Diana Stockon, � ...

* Jane Comfort *

John Jasperse John R. Jasperse (born October 8, 1963) orgenroth 2004 p.187 is an American choreographer and dancer. Since 1990 he has been artistic director and choreographer of the New York City-based John Jasperse Company.John Jasperse performer biography i ...

James Luna James Luna (February 9, 1950March 4, 2018) was a Payómkawichum, Ipi, and Mexican-American performance artist, photographer and multimedia installation artist. His work is best known for challenging the ways in which conventional museum exhibi ...

* Richard Maxwell *

Richard Move Richard Move is an American present-day choreographer, dancer, performing artist, director, and filmmaker. They are the Artistic Director of ''MoveOpolis!'' and Move- It! Productions. Move is well known internationally for their interest in Martha ...

* Basil Twist *

Kristina Wong Kristina Wong () is an American comedienne known primarily for her work as a solo theater performer, performance artist, and actor. She identifies as a feminist and her work often tackles themes regarding race, sex, and privilege, often in conjun ...

Michelle Ellsworth Michelle Ellsworth is an American dancer and performance artist, as well as a professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at University of Colorado Boulder. Her "smart, singular" work spans live performance, video, performable websites, and dr ...

* Brian Harnetty * Jesse Bonnell *

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is an American playwright. He won the 2014 Obie Award for Best New American Play for his plays '' Appropriate'' and '' An Octoroon''. His plays ''Gloria'' and '' Everybody'' were finalists for the 2016 and 2018 Pulitzer Pr ...

and

Carmelita Tropicana Alina Troyano, more commonly known as Carmelita Tropicana, is a Cuban-American stage and film lesbian actress who lives and works in New York City. Career Tropicana burst on New York's downtown performing arts scene in the 1980s with her alter eg ...

Visual Arts Visual arts projects that have received Creative Capital Awards include installation, painting, sculpture, photography, and public art. Notable funded projects include

Abigail DeVille Abigail DeVille (born 1981) is an artist who creates large sculptures and installations, often incorporating found materials from the neighborhoods around the exhibition venues. DeVille's sculptures and installations often focus on themes of th ...

’s ''The Bronx: History of Now'', Richard Pell’s

Center for PostNatural History The Center for PostNatural History is a storefront museum in Pittsburgh's Garfield neighborhood. In contrast to typical natural history museums, it is focused on the collection and exposition of organisms that have been intentionally and herita ...

Jennie C. Jones Jennie C. Jones (born 1968 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is an African-American artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been described, by Ken Johnson, as evoking minimalism, and paying tribute to the cross-pollination of different ...

’ ''Counterpoint'',

Critical Art Ensemble Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) is a collective of five tactical media practitioners of various specializations including computer graphics and web design, film/video, photography, text art, book art, and performance. For CAE, tactical media is situati ...

’s ''GenTerra'', and Lead Pencil Studios’ ''Maryhill Double''. *

Janine Antoni Janine Antoni (born January 19, 1964) is a Bahamian–born American artist, who creates contemporary work in performance art, sculpture, and photography. Antoni's work focuses on process and the transitions between the making and finished product, ...

* Cassils *

Mariam Ghani Mariam Ghani (Pashto/Dari: مریم غنی; born 1978) is an Afghan-American visual artist, photographer, filmmaker and social activist. Biography Mariam Ghani was born in 1978 in Brooklyn, New York, of Afghan and Lebanese descent. Her father, Mo ...

Narcissister Narcissister is an American, Brooklyn-based, feminist performance artist, born of Moroccan Jewish and African-American descent. Narcissister's work tends to focus on race, gender, and sexuality, using her slight anonymity to explore such topics con ...

* My Barbarian *

Lorraine O'Grady Lorraine O'Grady (born September 21, 1934) is an American artist, writer, translator, and critic. Working in conceptual art and performance art that integrates photo and video installation, she explores the cultural construction of identity – pa ...

Wu Tsang Wu Tsang (born 1982 in Worcester, Massachusetts) is a filmmaker, artist and performer based in New York and Berlin, whose work is concerned with hidden histories, marginalized narratives, and the act of performing itself. In 2018, Tsang received a ...

Sanford Biggers Sanford Biggers (born 1970 in Los Angeles) is a Harlem-based interdisciplinary artist who works in film/video, installation, sculpture, music, and performance.

Liz Cohen Liz Cohen (born 1973) is an American artist, known as a performance artist, photographer, educator, and automotive designer. She currently teaches at Arizona State University (ASU), and lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Early life and education Cohen ...

Theaster Gates Theaster Gates (born August 28, 1973) is an American social practice installation artist and a professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he still lives and works. Gates' ...

Simone Leigh Simone Leigh (born 1967) is an American artist from Chicago who works in New York City in the United States. She works in various media including sculpture, installations, video, performance, and social practice. Leigh has described her work as a ...

* William Pope.L * Xenobia Bailey *

LaToya Ruby Frazier LaToya Ruby Frazier (born 1982) is an American artist and professor of photography at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. From Braddock, Pennsylvania, Frazier began photographing her family and hometown at the age of 16, revising the socia ...

* Kerry Skarbakka Moving Image Creative Capital Projects in moving image include narrative and documentary film, short, episodic, and experimental film, animation, and video art. Notable projects include Penny Lane's documentary, ''NUTS''!, Barbara Hammer's ''Resisting Paradise'', Sam Green's ''The Weather Underground'', as well as Yance Ford's ''Strong Island'', and Daniel Sousa's ''Feral'', both of which were nominated for Academy Awards. *

Natalia Almada Natalia Almada is a Mexican-American photographer and filmmaker. Her work as a filmmaker focuses on Mexican history, politics, and culture in insightful and poetic films that push the boundaries of how the documentary form addresses social issues. ...

Sam Green Sam Green is an American documentary filmmaker. His most recent projects are “live documentaries” in which he narrates a film in-person while musicians perform a live soundtrack. His 2018 project ''A Thousand Thoughts'' features a live score ...

Sonali Gulati Sonali Gulati is an Indian American independent filmmaker, feminist, grass-roots activist, and educator. Gulati grew up in New Delhi, India. Her mother, a teacher and textile designer, raised her independently, getting single custody for her ...

Barbara Hammer Barbara Jean Hammer (May 15, 1939 – March 16, 2019) was an American feminist film director, producer, writer, and cinematographer. She is known for being one of the pioneers of the lesbian film genre, and her career spanned over 50 years. Hamm ...

Nina Menkes Nina Menkes is an independent filmmaker. Her films include ''The Great Sadness of Zohara'' (1983), ''Magdalena Viraga'' (1986), ''Queen of Diamonds'' (1991), ''The Bloody Child'' (1996), "Massacre (Massaker)" (2005), ''Phantom Love'' (2007), ''D ...

* Elisabeth Subrin *

Jake Yuzna Jake Yuzna is an American film director, screenwriter, and curator. His debut feature Open was the first American film to win the Teddy Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival and in 2005 Yuzna become the youngest recipient of funding from the Na ...

Jem Cohen Jem Alan Cohen (born 1962) is an Afghan-born American filmmaker based in New York City. Cohen is especially known for his observational portraits of urban landscapes, blending of media formats ( sixteen-millimetre, Super 8, videotape) and coll ...

Caveh Zahedi Caveh Zahedi (; born April 29, 1960) is an American film director and actor. Early years Zahedi was born in Washington, D.C., to Iranian immigrant parents. He studied philosophy at Yale University. Upon graduation, Zahedi moved to Paris, France ...

* Travis Wilkerson * Penny Lane *

Literature Creative Capital began funding literature projects in 2005, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid literary works. Notable projects include Paul Beatty's ''The Sellout'', Maggie Nelson's ''The Argonauts'', and Bernadette Mayer's ''The Helens of Troy, New York''. *

Jeffery Renard Allen Jeffery Renard Allen is an American poet, essayist, short story writer and novelist. He is the author of two collections of poetry, ''Harbors and Spirits'' (Moyer Bell, 1999) and ''Stellar Places'' (Moyer Bell, 2007), and four works of fiction ...

Jesse Ball Jesse Ball (born June 7, 1978) is an American novelist and poet. He has published novels, volumes of poetry, short stories, and drawings. His works are distinguished by the use of a spare style and have been compared to those of Jorge Luis Borges ...

Percival Everett Percival Everett (born December 22, 1956) is an American writer and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. Life Everett lives in Los Angeles, California. Literary career While completing his AM degree at B ...

Tonya Foster Tonya Monique Foster, usually credited as Tonya M. Foster, is an American poet, essayist, and educator from New Orleans. A 2020–2021 Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellow and recipient of a 2020 Creative Capital Award, she holds the Georg ...

Kenny Fries Kenny Fries (born September 22, 1960) is an American memoirist and poet. He is the author of ''In the Province of the Gods'' (2017), ''The History of My Shoes and the Evolution of Darwin's Theory'' (2007), ''Body, Remember: A Memoir'' (1997), and ...

* Christian Hawkey *

Ben Marcus Ben Marcus (born October 11, 1967) is an American author and professor at Columbia University. He has written four books of fiction. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in publications including ''Harper's'', ''The New Yorker'', ''The ...

* Bernadette Mayer *

Eileen Myles Eileen Myles (born December 9, 1949) is a LAMBDA Literary Award-winning American poet and writer who has produced more than twenty volumes of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, libretti, plays, and performance pieces over the last three decades. No ...

Rebecca Solnit Rebecca Solnit (born 1961) is an American writer. She has written on a variety of subjects, including feminism, the environment, politics, place, and art. Early life and education Solnit was born in 1961 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to a Jewish fa ...

Deb Olin Unferth Deb Olin Unferth (born November 19, 1968) is an American short story writer, novelist, and memoirist. She is the author of the collection of stories ''Minor Robberies'', the novel ''Vacation'', both published by ''McSweeney's'', and the memoir, ...

Emerging Fields Since 2000, Creative Capital has funded projects under a particular discipline they call “emerging fields,” which includes disciplines not typically classified as art. As of 2019, the category has been broken out into more specific categories, such as technology, social practice, software, architecture & design. Some notable artists funded in this category include: * Jae Rhim Lee *Sam Van Aken * DesertArtLAB *

Futurefarmers Amy Franceschini (born 1970, in Patterson, California) is a contemporary American artist and designer. Her practice spans a broad range of media including drawing, sculpture, design, net art, public art and gardening. She was a 2010 Guggen ...

The Yes Men The Yes Men are a culture jamming activist duo and network of supporters created by Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos. Through various actions, the Yes Men primarily aim to raise awareness about problematic social and political issues. To date, t ...

* Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere * Tale of Tales *

Liz Glynn Liz Glynn (born 1981) is an American artist. She is originally from Boston and now works out of Los Angeles. Much of her work is sculptural and installation-based, incorporating found objects and materials. Her work deals with institutional cri ...

KCHUNG Radio KCHUNG is a freeform radio station in the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles as KChung Radio 1630 AM. KCHUNG broadcasts over 200 shows a month on 1630 AM and online through the station's website. The station operates according to what are gen ...

* Tanya Aguiñiga * Zach Blas * Porpentine and

Peter Burr Peter Burr is a digital and new media artist based in Brooklyn, New York, born August 3, 1980. Having received a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 2002, Peter specializes in animation and installation. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellows ...

* Heather Dewey-Hagborg * Eva and Franco Mattes *

Laura Parnes Laura Parnes is contemporary American artist who creates non-linear narratives that engage strategies of film and video art and blur the lines between storytelling conventions and experimentation. Her work is often episodic, references pop cultu ...

Evan Roth Evan Roth (born 1978) is an American artist who applies a hacker philosophy to an art practice that visualizes transient moments in public space, online and in popular culture. Biography Evan Roth received a degree in architecture from Universi ...

Shana Moulton Shana Moulton is a New York based media artist who explores contemporary anxieties through her filmic alter ego, Cynthia. Combining an unsettling, wry humor with a low-tech, Pop sensibility, Cynthia's interactions with the everyday world are both ...

and Nick Hallett

Artist Retreat

After each new round of awards is announced, Creative Capital hosts a retreat for the artists, as well as people connected to Creative Capital in various ways who act as consultants, workshop leaders or observers. In various workshops and meetings with consultants, artists are advised on how to plan the coming years of their artistic careers as well their personal goals. Creative Capital hosts a variety of events for awardees to meet each other and others within the artistic community. Critic

Paddy Johnson Paddy Johnson is a New York-based art critic, blogger, curator and writer. Johnson is the founder and editor of the art blog Art F City (formerly called Art Fag City). Art F City publishes an annual calendar titled "Nude Artists as Pandas," featu ...

wrote, "These conferences offer grantees an amazing opportunity to connect with other artists and a wide range of curators, distributors, and artistic directors through mixers, meetings with consultants, and artist presentations. They also ask grantees to return to the conference every couple of years, which keeps them in touch with a constantly expanding network of creative art folk." Awardees are also asked to present their Creative Capital Award project ideas as a work-in-progress to a live audience of curators and presenters. These presentations are uploaded to YouTube and can be viewed by the public.

Workshops and Resources

In 2003 Creative Capital started producing workshops, offering all artists access to online and in-person workshops to help them with skills such as communication and marketing, strategic planning, self-management, fundraising, and community building. Many of the programs are developed and led by Creative Capital Awardees, using the affordable workshop model to give them a platform to share their expertise. The workshops have been described as a "crash course in self-management, strategic planning, fundraising and promotion." During the pandemic in 2020, Creative Capital provided online resources including free artist workshops. The organization was also a member of Artist Relief, an emergency coalition of national arts grantmakers to support artists during the COVID-19 crisis.

References

External links

Creative-Capital.org

* ttps://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/13/arts/new-york-artists-win-majority-of-a-foundation-s-first-grants.html New York Times article on the first round of Creative Capital grantees
LA Times article on Creative Capital's impact

Fast Company article on Creative Capital's use of venture philanthropy

99u interview with President of Creative Capital, Ruby Lerner

* ttp://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-opinion/news/2011-01-28/funding-the-arts-pay-to-play/ Funding the Arts: Pay to Play– Art in America
The Cult Appeal of the Creative Capital Retreat

Creative Capital: April 30–June 6, 2010
– exhibition
A Spark for Good Art: Creative Capital doesn’t just fund projects, it builds careers
{{Authority control Arts organizations based in New York City Arts organizations established in 1999 1999 establishments in New York (state)