Inspired by Creative Work Fund Grants
With great enthusiasm we are amplifying the 30th year of Creative Work Fund grantmaking. This funder collaborative of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation supports projects that show us how the making of art together is a necessary act. Through the 470 collaborations funded over the last three decades, we see that when artists and organizations are in partnership, they strengthen the Bay Area. This year, CWF granted $882,000 to 17 collaborations of artists and organizations making new work in the Bay: visual art, theater, music composition, dance, artistic activism, social practice, and more.
Read the full grant announcement and review the list of grantees here.
With projects rooted in the power of history, visibility, and imagination, artists are breaking new ground. Projects will activate public space, using art as an ecstatic form of community organizing, reminding us that the future begins out in the open. And they show how artists model collective care, transformative healing, and joy.
A Creative Wellspring Within
Our recent blog on building trust and busting silos shared the story of how Team CWF, a subset of Walter & Elise Haas Fund staff, uses inclusive practices to design, manage, and engage with each other and with community to realize this unique grantmaking. CWF is a place for staff to have deep interaction with the arts, to work directly with artists, and to walk through the abundant garden of creative aspiration that applicants share with us: showing us what is inspiring, what is timely, and what is possible. When we share our work in progress with our colleagues, the grantmaking methods we’ve developed to serve artists and organizations inspires new approaches. We take inspiration from CWF grantseekers and grantees to
- Take risks.
- Believe in the power of artists to lead and transform communities.
- Tell the story about how collaborations allow us to achieve things none of us could achieve on our own.
Creative Next Steps Ahead
Team CWF is taking the pulse of artists, organizations, and community members to understand what is most valuable about this program and spending the rest of the year designing future grantmaking. We’ll weave in celebrations for the 2024 cohort, and for CWF’s 30th year. Sign up to receive CWF announcements and opportunities to connect to the work of CWF grantees.
Arts, Blog, News, Creative Work Fund, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
