How To Apply For A Grant

Overview of Application Process

Organizations and artists should jointly prepare and sign a letter of inquiry of no more than three pages (including a brief, preliminary budget) and the letter of inquiry cover sheet (a total of four pages).  The lead artist also may include a professional resume of no more than two pages.

Letters should be sent or delivered to The Creative Work Fund, One Lombard Street, Suite 305, San Francisco, CA 94111.  2011 deadlines will be announced in December 2010: Please do not submit a letter before the deadline is announced.

Literary Arts and Traditional Arts letters will be reviewed separately.  Each letter will be screened by between two and five readers.  From among the letters of inquiry received in each genre, the Creative Work Fund will invite approximately 25 collaborating artists and organizations to submit more detailed proposals.

Each invited project will receive detailed guidelines about how to submit a full proposal along with a $200 stipend to offset duplication costs.  Full proposals include manuscripts and other documentation illustrating the quality of the artists’ work, detailed budgets, and additional background information about the organizations.

Two panels (one in literary arts and one in traditional arts) comprising arts and community representatives will review the finalists’ proposals and recommend projects to be funded.  Representatives of the foundations that support the Creative Work Fund will approve the final awards.

Grants will be awarded to collaborating 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organizations, not directly to collaborating artists.

Letter of inquiry instructions: Literary Arts

What to include in a letter of inquiry

The letter, no longer than three pages, should include:

• Project description including information about how you will collaborate
• Amount requested and summary budget (budget should be part of the three-page letter, not an additional page)
• Description of the organization
• Information demonstrating the range and quality of the artist’s work
• Description of how the artist’s work relates to this project
• Rationale for the collaboration between the artist and organization and a brief explanation of why the project is appropriate now
• Discussion of how the work will reach audiences

How to present your letter of inquiry

• Use plain, white or light stationery or paper (so it is easy for the Creative Work Fund staff to make clear photocopies)
• Use a 12 point font typeface (no smaller)
• Limit your letter to three pages of writing
• Include the letter of inquiry cover sheet  (in addition to the three page letter)
• Do not staple your letter or submit it in a folder
• Mail or deliver your letter (facsimiles and electronic submissions are not accepted)

The letter of inquiry screening and proposal award decisions will be based on:

• Evidence of the range and quality of the artist’s work
• Evidence that the project is an authentic collaboration between the artist and the organization
• Evidence that the project stretches organizational thinking and artistic imagination
• Demonstrated capability of the organization in its field
• Evidence of fiscal responsibility and sound organizational management
• Feasibility of the proposed project, based on required materials, time line, and budget

Examples of recently funded literary arts projects:

• Big Bridge Press and poet, musician, and scholar David Meltzer (with fiscal sponsor Committee on Poetry) are creating RockPile, a poetic journal in the tradition of Japanese literature, and a performance based on the collaborators’ travel to eight cities in the United States that were central to the cultural upheaval and identity politics that reawakened poets, artists, musicians, and songwriters in the mid 1960s through the 1970s.  (2008 award)

• The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music collaborating with Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson (a.k.a. The Kitchen Sisters) to create a multimedia symphonic production of The Secret Life of Girls Around the World. The finished piece will premiere in August 2012 at the annual Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.  (2008 award)

• The Oakland Zoo collaborating with writer Rebecca Solnit and Heyday Books to produce a series of evocative literary descriptions of California native wildlife that will be available for incorporation into the Zoo’s exhibitions and signage and will be published in a small book illustrated by Mona Caron and published by Heyday Books. (2008 award)

For a full list of previously awarded grants, see CWF Grant Recipients, 1994-2009.
Letter of inquiry instructions: Traditional Arts

What to include in a letter of inquiry

The letter, no longer than three pages, should include:

• Project description including information about the tradition in which you are working, its cultural context, and how the artist and organization will collaborate
• Amount requested and summary budget (budget should be part of the three-page letter, not an additional page)
• Description of the organization
• Information demonstrating the quality and authenticity of the lead traditional artist’s work and that artist’s role in his or her community
• Description of how the proposed project builds upon the artist’s previous work
• Rationale for the collaboration between the artist and organization and a brief explanation of why the project is appropriate now
• Discussion of how the work will be shared within its cultural context or with a wider audience

How to present your letter of inquiry

• Use plain, white or light stationery or paper (so it is easy for the Creative Work Fund staff to make clear photocopies)
• Use a 12 point font typeface (no smaller)
• Limit your letter to three pages of writing
• Include the letter of inquiry cover sheet  (in addition to the three page letter)
• Do not staple your letter or submit it in a folder
• Mail or deliver your letter (facsimiles and electronic submissions are not accepted)

The letter of inquiry screening and proposal award decisions will be based on:

• Evidence of the artistic quality and adherence to tradition of artists involved in the project
• Evidence of the cultural significance of the tradition in the context of its community
• Evidence that the project is an authentic collaboration between the artist and the organization
• Evidence that the project addresses goals shared by the organization and the artist
• Demonstrated capability of the organization in its field or community
• Evidence of fiscal responsibility and sound organizational management
• Feasibility of the proposed project, based on required materials, time line, and budget

Invitation of detailed proposals

Letters in the traditional arts will be read by between two and six readers—including artists, curators, folklorists, and/or ethnomusicologists from outside of any of the contributing foundations.  From among the traditional arts letters of inquiry received, the Creative Work Fund will invite approximately 25 collaborating artists and organizations to submit more detailed proposals.  Invitations to apply will include instructions about how to complete the proposal and a check for $200 to assist with the costs of copying materials.

Traditional Arts Documentation Grants

Because many traditional artists lack audio or video recordings, CDs, photographs, or other documentation of their work, every traditional artist and organization invited to submit a full proposal also is invited to request a $500 documentation grant. The Creative Work Fund will provide a simple one-page request sheet for these grants.

Examples of recently funded traditional arts projects

Maria Poletaeva (El Cerrito) collaborating with Kitka, Inc. and the Russian folk arts collective Kedry

Maria Poletaeva and the Russian folk arts collective Kedry are collaborating with Kitka and Tatiana Teodorovich to create Transplanting Mokosha, an inter-generational outdoor musical ritual transforming ancient rural Russian customs associated with the autumn Feast Day of Mokosha for contemporary California audiences. (2009 award)

Sali Rumen Shopov collaborating with Voice of Roma

Musician Sali Rumen Shopov is collaborating with Voice of Roma and its program director, dancer and choreographer Sani Rifati; Peter Jacques, Director of Brass Menazeri; and the Bay Area’s Brass Liberation Orchestra to create and perform a repertoire of processional street music based on Balkan Romani traditions. (2009 award)

Linda Yamane collaborating with Big Sur Land Trust

Native California artist Linda Yamane is collaborating with Big Sur Land Trust, which recently acquired for open space protection land that was Yamane’s family’s ancestral home. Together they are gathering materials for and creating a rare Ohlone presentation basket whose surface is interwoven with tiny iridescent green feathers of the mallard duck and a pattern of red. The artist estimates that a basket of this type has not been made in 300 years. (2009 award)

For a full list of previously awarded grants, see CWF Recipients 1994-2009.