CWF Now Accepting Letters of Inquiry for Projects Featuring Literary and Traditional Artists
The Creative Work Fund (CWF) is now inviting letters of inquiry from literary or traditional artists and nonprofit organizations looking to produce collaborative projects. If you’re interested in applying for one of these highly competitive $10,000 to $40,000 grants, we encourage you to attend one of our informational seminars or webinars (details below).
Letters of inquiry are due by December 2, 2016. Of those that apply, approximately 50 will be invited to submit detailed proposals. Awarded grants will be announced August 1, 2017.
We see these grants as paying artists to practice their disciplines and hone their skills as collaborators. Through creative working partnerships, local artists and nonprofits can achieve excellence, connect with members of the public who are new to their work, and draw attention to communities’ needs.
The Creative Work Fund is a program of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund that is supported by a generous grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Since its inception in 1994, CWF has contributed more than $11 million to advance art-making by Northern California artists in a variety of disciplines. Grants are awarded to genuine, creative partnerships between artists and nonprofit organizations. Each year, CWF focuses on projects from different disciplines.
Letters of inquiry for the December 2016 deadline must feature a lead artist with a strong track record as a literary artist or traditional artist and involve a collaboration between that artist and a nonprofit organization. The Creative Work Fund uses the following definitions in determining eligibility:
- Literary artists write, publish, or perform poetry, spoken word poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction. (Playwrights apply with performing artists, who will be invited in a future year.)
- Traditional artists create in art forms learned as part of the cultural life of a group of people whose members have a common ethnic heritage, language, religion, occupation, or region. These expressions are deeply rooted in and reflect a community’s shared standards of beauty, values, or life experiences. Often they are learned orally or by emulation. Traditional artists may excel as individual artists, work as a group, or work collectively. They may produce works in a variety of forms — oral traditions, performances, crafts, multidisciplinary works, and others.
The CWF grant program emphasizes the creation of new work — not distribution or productions of work already developed. To be eligible to apply, the principal collaborating artists and organizations must live or be and have been located in, for at least two years, the Northern California counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano or Sonoma.
Seminars and Webinars
The CWF offers several optional seminars and webinars for potential applicants. While these are not required, they are highly recommended, especially if the applicant is not familiar with the Fund. To attend a seminar, you should reserve a space online.
- Aptos — Wednesday, September 7, 2016, 3:30 – 4:45 p.m.
Community Foundation for Santa Cruz County, 7807 Soquel Drive, Aptos
(Presented in partnership with the Arts Council Santa Cruz County, which is offering a workshop at the same venue for Santa Cruz artists and nonprofits, 5:00-6:15 p.m.) - Berkeley — Saturday, September 17, 2016, 2:30 – 4 p.m.
Gamelan Sekar Jaya, 3023 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley
(Dress comfortably for floor seating in the studio.) - San Jose — Saturday, September 24, 2016, 1 – 2:30 p.m.
San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, 520 S. First Street, San Jose - Santa Rosa — Wednesday, September 28, 2016, 1:30 – 3 p.m.
California Indian Museum and Cultural Center, 5250 Aero Drive, Santa Rosa - Vallejo — Wednesday, September 28, 2016, 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum (Auditorium), 734 Marin Street, Vallejo - San Rafael — Tuesday, October 4, 2016, 10:15-11:45 a.m.
Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership, 65 Mitchell Boulevard, #101, San Rafael - Oakland – Thursday, October 6, 2016, 6-7:15 p.m.
Centro Legal de la Raza, 3400 East 12th Street, Oakland - San Francisco – Saturday, October 22, 2016, 1:30-2:45 p.m.
826 Valencia Street’s Tenderloin Center, 130 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco
Webinars
Webinars are produced in conjunction with The Foundation Center. Please sign up online.
- Monday, September 12, 2016, noon – 1 p.m.
- Tuesday, September 27, 2016, 6 – 7 p.m.
- Tuesday, October 25, 2016, 6 – 7 p.m.
- Monday, October 31, 2016, noon – 1 p.m.
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