President's report
By Ruby Lerner, September 2000
 
Dear friends:

We've continued to be extremely busy, with a very active summer travel/outreach schedule, our first Artists' Retreat, and an exciting new mentorship program.

I'd like to thank those of you who have taken the time to call, write, or send emails about these updates. I believe they are a critical part of our documentation process and one of the primary ways we can share our experiences with the field. It's important for us to know if they are, in fact, useful and informative. I'll also be sending a brief follow-up soon after the grant deadline on October 31 with information about this year's applicants.

Thank you for your interest in our work on behalf of individual artists throughout the United States.
 
Ruby Lerner
President

The First Creative Capital Artists’ Retreat

Seventy-Two Hours:

39 artists' presentations, 6 formal workshops, and 160 individual consultations

–Alex Rivera, Creative Capital grantee

Our first retreat was a huge success – one of those magical events that happens quite rarely. One of the resource consultants said it was "one of the most rewarding experiences" of her professional life. Another wrote that although she had high expectations, she was "completely overwhelmed by the quality of the presentations." One of the artists told us that "what happened in that one weekend would have taken me years to cultivate on my own."

The meeting was held at the beautiful Skowhegan School for Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine, from August 17-20. We created a very intensive agenda for such a brief meeting, and we accomplished a lot. Thirty-nine of the 75 funded artists attended. Part of the meeting's power came from having all disciplines represented. Many of the artists spoke about how they work in isolation and how exciting it was to see work from other disciplines and to feel like part of a community.

We are beginning to hear that a number of concrete opportunities, such as artists' residencies and possible collaborations, may be an outcome of the event for some of the participating artists. We will chronicle this in our next report, as the details filter in.

The Retreat's Structure and Components:

The Opening Session

We asked five of the participating resource consultants to help frame the gathering by providing a snapshot of what is currently going on in each of the major areas in which Creative Capital artists are working – identifying opportunities and key issues. The consultants gave presentations on Public Art (Nathan Braulick of Y-Core), Visual Arts (Independent Curator Andrea Miller-Keller), Performing Arts (Linda Greenberg of Pomegranate Arts), Media (David Koh of Palm Pictures and sputnik7.com), and Digital Art (Mark Tribe of rhizome.org). This lively session raised a number of issues for discussion. We will be putting an edited version of the panel's remarks on our website later in the fall.

Presentations by Artists

This was the heart of the retreat and what gave it its power. We asked the artists to make 10-minute presentations about their work, their Creative Capital project, the issues they were trying to address, and the problems they were trying to solve or needs they anticipated in the realization of their projects. The staff, other artists, and resource consultants we had gathered represented an incredible brain trust and we did our best to utilize them to the maximum. One of our staff members had worked tirelessly with the artists ahead of time to make sure they were prepared to take full advantage of the opportunity, and every artist made a powerful presentation. Each managed – in a brief 10 minutes – to take you into his or her world.

Skills-Building Workshops

We reserved the afternoons for workshops and individual consultations. We had six workshops with varying formats: Strategic Planning; Fundraising; Marketing and Public Relations; Using the Internet; a Roundtable on International Opportunities; and a Legal Clinic. These all proved useful, judging from participants’ comments and evaluation forms. However, even though we held the workshops sequentially, our tight schedule forced some artists to choose between workshops and individual consultations held at the same time.

Individual Consultations

We brought in a group of truly exceptional resource consultants from both the non-profit and commercial communities, all of whom were quite generous in their interactions with the artists. We are collecting more detailed information from participants and consultants about their responses to these sessions, but anecdotally we are aware of how helpful they were. Because many artists had similar needs, consultants did end up repeating a lot of the same information, so for future gatherings we will schedule small-group sessions around shared issues, which might then be followed up by highly specific individualized meetings.

What We’re Learning

We designed the retreat to be an important component of the overall Creative Capital experiment, and there's no question that we should repeat it. The core of the meeting design appears solid; nonetheless, there will be some important refinements. We didn’t utilize all of the consultants equally well – we could do a much better job informing participants ahead of time about the consultants who might be most helpful to them. We need to solve scheduling issues, mentioned above, as well. For next year, the retreat will be the first major activity on the agenda of artist services following the grant award (this year, it was in the middle of the cycle, which was not particularly efficient).

The bigger issues for future meetings are location – and size. Skowhegan was inspirational, and there is certainly a value in really "retreating"; however, the distance from New York meant that a great deal of time and resources had to be devoted to transportation. A meeting site closer to New York would help us cut costs in the future and allow as much time as possible for substantive activities.

Further, we were at capacity at Skowhegan, which cannot accommodate a larger group. Next year we will have an additional 30 new grantees, and we suspect that as word filters out to the 36 first-round grantees who weren't able to attend this first retreat, some of them may want to attend as well. I think we were at about the right number (approximately 40 artists, 20 resource consultants, 10 staff), and I'm not certain about how the event might change if the attendance goes up. There may be a way to structure it as a "modular" event, which occurs over a more extended period of time; then participants could choose to come for the whole event or for just part of it. We definitely want to preserve the intimacy that we achieved, and the possibility of deepening the relationships that began this year. This will be a considerable challenge as we grow. We welcome your ideas and experiences!

Evolving Methodology

The Grantmaking Process

While our grantmaking process is more pro-active than that of traditional grantmakers, nonetheless it is fairly traditional in many respects. We have been doing extensive traveling and public meetings around the country; we have a group of leaders from the field whom we ask to recommend artists to us; the staff actively pursues artists and projects of interests; and we have an open submission process as well. Two outside evaluators from the applicant's discipline area read each proposal. Using information garnered from the evaluation process, the program staff prepares a roster of 55-60 projects to go on to the final panel round; panels are composed of artists and arts professionals. Our first year the average grant size of the initial award was $7,500; this will increase to about $13,000 for 2000-2001 grantees.

What We're Learning

We funded 75 projects at all stages of development and artists at all stages of their careers. This is providing us with an opportunity to get a sense of the type of artist and project most suited for the unique aspects of our process.

We suspected that the Creative Capital grant would be more appropriate for some artists than for others, and this seems to be the case. It appears that it is not a good fit when viewed as "just another project grant." It is most useful as a catalytic grant. This does not seem be related to artistic discipline. (We thought originally the Creative Capital grant might not be so useful to visual artists – it's turning out to be quite useful.) Nor does this seem to be related to the maturity of the artist. (We had thought that it might work well only for emerging artists – it's turning out to be especially useful for mid-career artists and mature artists who are at a crossroads, and who are curious and open to change.) Particularly after the retreat, I think it is becoming increasingly clear to grantees that the financial award is only a small part – and perhaps not even the most valuable part – of what Creative Capital has to offer. While no system can perfectly identify ideal candidates, we will add specific questions to the second round application to try to determine up front who might benefit most from our supplemental programs and ancillary services.

We still have a few awardees who have not yet signed their contracts. We have been in direct contact with most of them, and a few are waiting on comments from their lawyers. We do have a couple of artists who have not communicated with us at all, and we expect that a couple of artists may ultimately decline the grant, which we feel is ok. We have been extremely flexible, have encouraged changes that help make the contract more artist-friendly, and have even been willing, in special cases, to accept project changes. We will now set a deadline for signing, as we need to go into next year knowing exactly what financial resources are available.

This year we’ve made the contract available on our website, so applicants can see ahead of time what will be expected should they receive a grant. The website also includes comments from participating artists. We hope that this information will put potential applicants in a better position to make an informed decision about whether or not this is a good grant for them to pursue.

The Timing of the Retreat

As we are altering our grantmaking calendar, next year the first formal activity after the awards have been announced will be the Artists' Retreat. Many of the follow-up activities will proceed based on information that is garnered and connections that are made at this event. We feel that the placement of the retreat, at the beginning of the cycle, will be much more efficient. (See analysis, above.)

The Staff Consultation

This year we have tried to meet with every funded artist individually. We hope to have met with everyone before the end of the year – preferably in person, but by phone if necessary. We’ve made the concept of a meeting with the staff a core component of our process, as it allows artists to articulate their project and career goals in a safe environment. It also helps us determine the most effective ways to assist them and identify the most appropriate follow-up consultants for each project.

We are currently distributing interim report forms to grantees, and our goal is to document the progress of each project for our December 2000 board meeting.

What We’re Learning:

While meeting with each artist has been a productive activity, it also has been time- consuming for the staff. Based on the experience of the retreat, we now feel that it might be even more useful for us to meet with artists initially in discipline-specific small groups, rather than individually.

Supplemental Financial Support

Another critical component of our process has been to reserve a small amount of additional funding, approximately $5,000 per project, for what we consider "strategic interventions." This makes the actual average grant $12,500 for 1999-2000 grantees and $18,000 for 2000-2001 grantees.

Our objective is to use a small amount of money to have a catalytic impact on the project and/or a stabilizing effect on the artist. For some artists, this has meant equipment purchases; for others, creating promotional materials; for still others, hiring administrative assistants to help get out additional grant proposals. These are just a few of the uses of supplemental support. Our goal is to be responsive to each artist's particular needs.

What We're Learning

While all of the money could simply have been granted out in the first round, I believe that most artists would pour the dollars into their projects, and end up without some of the tools that might move their projects or careers forward. By reserving the dollars for strategic purposes, we create the room for artists to contemplate the things they often know are important, but don't have the financial means to accomplish. Setting aside money for strategic, often career-building, purposes has proven quite successful.

The Mentorship Program

This is a pilot program currently in development under the direction of Colleen Keegan of Keegan Fowler Associates. Colleen is currently mentoring two of our projects through the business plan stage. She conducted the very popular Strategic Planning Workshop at the retreat and has been following up with individual artists since August. Colleen is currently identifying mentors from the business and nonprofit communities to work with artists who complete her rigorous planning exercises and who can articulate clear project and career objectives. Mentorships will last for six months to one year, with biweekly interactions between grantee and mentor. We will use the experiences of our artists to create case studies and materials, such as a strategic planning workbook, which can be more widely disseminated in print and online. The online materials will also include financial planning information, time management tips, and negotiation pointers, along with techniques for overcoming common problems.

Second Round Funding for Current Grantees

We feel that we have supported many exciting artists and projects. Not surprisingly, though, some projects have a much greater potential for impact, either within the arts community or in the broader culture. In January 2001, we will experiment with second round funding to already funded grantees. This will be a competitive round, in which grants will be larger (up to $20,000) and fewer than in the initial round. We will bring in an outside panel to help us make these decisions, and we will be assessing the projects on their potential impact and the timing of our support.

So, although our initial grants are relatively small, someone who receives the minimum grant of $5,000 initially could end up with a total of $30,000 in direct financial support though supplemental and second round funding, plus all the ancillary services. Similarly, an artist receiving the highest award of $20,000 initially could end up with a total of $45,000.

Special Opportunities Funding

We have also reserved a small amount of money to help funded artists take advantage of opportunities that may come up from time to time, or to assist in emergency situations. This might include study, travel and professional development opportunities, or targeted assistance for project completion expenses.

Project Presentation Event

One of the most exciting suggestions to come out of the retreat was proposed by several of the resource consultants who attended. Several spoke about how privileged they felt to be able to learn about the work being done by our grantees. They felt that the projects were so strong that they should be seen by a larger group of curators, presenters, distributors, etc. I am considering experimenting with an event next May, to coincide with our May 2001 board meeting, consisting of brief presentations by Creative Capital artists, echoing the retreat format. We would invite the board and current and prospective funders, plus a select group of curators and programmers, who can help provide advice and counsel to the artists. If this proves valuable, it could become a regular event, either annual or biennial.

Upcoming Grant Deadline

This year we are accepting applications in the Visual Arts and Media categories. Our deadline is October 31, 2000; please alert anyone who, in your opinion, should know about us. The best place to access the application, plus other information for applicants, is on our website: www.creative-capital.org. Applications will be accepted by email (preferred), mail, and fax. They may also be hand-delivered.

We have already distributed over 20,000 application forms – double the number we disseminated last year. About 6,000 went out in packets of 10 each to 600 organizations and gathering places for artists; the remainder went to individuals included in our growing database. We also sent out emails to the more than 4,000 people on our email list. Again, we will be sending you an update on the 2000-2001 application process shortly after the deadline.

Travel and Outreach

We had a very active travel year, with extensive travel by our two program officers, Ken Chu and Esther Robinson, and myself. We tried to attend some of the important gatherings in each of the discipline areas, such as the College Art Association meeting, the National Performance Network meeting, the Sundance and South by Southwest Film Festivals, and the Silicon Alley Reporter's Rising Tide Summit, to name just a few. We appeared on numerous professional panels, but the heart of the outreach effort has been the public meetings we have held in communities around the country. We work primarily through local arts councils and arts organizations to help us put these events together. They have all been very supportive.

The summer travel was especially productive. About 150 people attended our meeting in Seattle and 75 came to our Portland meeting, where I also met with a number of local foundations that support the arts. Ken and Esther were in California while I was in the Pacific Northwest and they held four meetings in Los Angeles, one meeting in San Diego, one in San Jose, and one especially well-attended meeting in San Francisco.

As the word has gotten out about the meetings, we have begun receiving requests to travel to additional sites. We have slowed down a bit this fall, as we are heading into the next grant cycle. However, I'm planning a public meeting in Pittsburgh, and Ken has been to several sites in North Carolina, and to Atlanta. By the time we wrap up the year, we will have held public meetings and attended arts events in states in every region of the United States, including Arizona, California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maine (Artists’ Retreat), Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Washington.

We plan to continue our travel next year, probably concentrating most travel activity during the late spring and early summer. We will be making our 2001 travel plans this fall and looking to fill in major gaps on the map.

What We're Learning

The public meetings have been very good events; sometimes people drive from miles away just to attend. But the situation facing individual artists around the country seems grim. There is very little arts support specifically for individual artists. As we were winding down the summer's meetings, I realized that perhaps our presence could also be catalytic in helping spur artists to action locally. Future public meetings could serve both as a way to get the word out about Creative Capital and as a forum for discussion about the state of local support and how it might be enhanced. What we can do as an organization will always be finite, but our catalytic impact can be extensive.

Website Development

We got back to work on the website this fall. There's a lot of good information on the site now, but we have a long way to go to make it more visually compelling. Our big project for the fall is to create a space for each artist to put up information about his/her project. We also want to begin doing an online magazine/newsletter. Much of this work will be made possible through a major new grant from the Surdna Foundation.

Networking

One area I have not reported on previously is the ongoing meetings that the staff and I have been having with colleagues in both the nonprofit and commercial sectors; we have held these meetings in New York and as we have traveled throughout the country. We have tried to take every opportunity to build contacts that might lead to future opportunities for grantees.

Staff Update

Our development director, Nancy Scerbo, has to finish her divinity school requirements this year, so we have hired Jeffrey Lependorf, who is the Executive Director of Music/Omi and has worked with numerous organizations, including currently, Dancing in the Streets, as her replacement. Nancy will stay on as Special Projects Consultant, to assist with both development and artist services.

Ten-Year Blueprint

I have begun working on a blueprint for thinking about how Creative Capital might evolve over the next decade. In spite of our institutional youth, I think we have already begun to have an impact on the discourse concerning support for stimulating creativity. We have an opportunity to expand our learning beyond the small number of artists we can actually fund and to fulfill our articulated mandate to stimulate greater financial support for creativity nationwide. I plan to have a draft prepared for comment at our December board meeting.

Conclusion

On behalf of the artists we're supporting, once again I want to thank all our funders, as well as our board members, for making Creative Capital possible.