We’re reimagining and refreshing how the Creative Work Fund engages with and supports the Bay Area arts community.
Since the Creative Work Fund (CWF) was formed 30 years ago in response to several years of declining support for artists and new art works, we’ve awarded $17.8 million in grants to artists and organizations, supporting them to create new art works in collaborative partnership. Those works, and the people collaborating to create them, continue to provide a profound contribution to the inspiration, solution building, and connectivity that strengthens communities as only the arts can.
And now, 30 years in, it’s again time for us to listen and act.
Through a series of listening sessions and a community survey, we’ve engaged previous and current Creative Work Fund grantees and others in reviewing what we’ve been doing and what we need to do. We asked what artists and organizations need today and where we need to reimagine and refresh our work and our processes.
Here’s what we learned:
Collaboration
The first category of feedback points towards a reimagined definition of collaboration. While collaboration has been at the heart of the Creative Work Fund since its founding—and is widely seen as a strength of the program—we have been proscriptive about what form that collaboration takes.
CWF applicants are required to apply as part of a collaborative partnership, between a lead artist and an organization, focused on an artistic project. In our listening sessions and through the survey, we were asked to consider other ways we can support and define collaboration. What about, for example, the ways in which artists and organizations collaborate through artist residencies, or as part of community-led initiatives? What about collaborations that aren’t definitively project, product, or outcome based? Those, too, advance the goals of the Creative Work Fund and the community it serves.
We agree. The Creative Work Fund is working towards an evolution of how we will applaud, and support collaboration in the future.
Connection
We heard that we play a role in facilitating meaningful community connections. While—in the past, before the pandemic—we had hosted events and gatherings that helped the arts community come together, we haven’t done so recently. In the coming year, we’ll reinvest in gatherings that build community, starting with an in-person meeting of the 2024 Creative Work Fund grantee cohort.
We hope this helps feed creative interchange, creates opportunity for artists and organizations to support each other, and inspires and supports our funding peers in engaging in similar connection building.
Changing Perception
Our third learning is that some see the Creative Work Fund as exclusive. Some applicants and more of those who decided not to apply sensed that Creative Work Fund grants were awarded to artists farther along in their careers. Those who had yet to fully establish themselves as artists, or who weren’t professional artists, didn’t think they had a chance of receiving support. Combined with a lengthy application, this was enough to keep potentially laudable projects and partnerships from applying.
We can see how some of the messages we sent might have created this perception.
That needs to change—and it will.
To start, we have reaffirmed our commitment to centering community. We now exclusively engage Bay Area-based readers and panelists selected from an open call for nominations. We believe reviewers with a deep connection to the region we call home will open the door wider to people—of all levels—from the local community.
Already, we see new artists, organizations, and collectives applying because they see themselves in the Creative Work Fund. We know we have more progress to make so we can trade a perception of elitism for one that reflects our honest invitation.
Gratitude, and More to Come
Thank you to all who shared their opinions, thoughts, and advice with us through this listening process. It is our honor to reimagine and refresh the Creative Work Fund with all of you.
We want the Creative Work Fund to meet you where you are and to be a resource for the entire community. Our design work continues, and our next report will be in the new year. If you haven’t already, subscribe to our mailing list to receive updates.