President's report
Second set of grantees announced
By Ruby Lerner, May, 2001

Introduction
There's been so much going on, it's hard to know where to begin! It's been an exciting few months—we have 43 new grantees, and 21 of our current grantees have been awarded additional project support. We continue our travels: I gave a keynote address for the annual ArtTable luncheon that was very well received (see attached); Arch has just been in California working on Endowment support; and we're getting ready for our second artists' retreat.

Creative Capital artists are everywhere. Projects that we funded in the development phase are now coming to fruition. Just a few bits of news: we had three films at Sundance, three artists are in the Whitney Bitstreams show (and the Whitney just bought some of Jason Salavon's work—he calls his Creative Capital grant "the gift that keeps on giving"), we have several artists in the Digital Show currently at the List Center at MIT, three artists will be in a summer show at the Queens Museum, Jennifer Monson is performing on the West Coast (following the whales from Mexico to Canada), and Chris Munch's beautiful film "The Sleepy Time Gal" got a wonderful review in the Los Angeles Times.

And, we had a nice article in Crain's Business Weekly.

Grants
We have had 3 recent grant panels: one for projects we funded in the first cycle, one for new grants in film and video, and one for new grants in the visual arts. Enclosed you will find descriptions of the exciting project and the award amounts. Please review these, as you will be asked to approve the awards at the board meeting. We're really thrilled about the new projects on the roster, and we're pleased to be able to provide additional funding to some of the projects from our first cycle.

Internal Round
All 75 projects funded in 1999–2000 were eligible to apply for additional funds—43 did so. The panel recommended 21 projects for further funding, totaling $200,000.

What is important about this second round of funding is that it addresses a key concern about the size of the initial grants, which tended to be small (average $7,500). With the additional follow-up support allocated, the average grant will actually amount to $15,434. Five percent (4) of the first 75 grantees have received more than $30,000 (highest award to date is $37,000); 16% (12) have received more than $20,000; 28% (21) have received more than $15,000; 23% (17) have received more than $10,000; 27% (20) have received $10,000 and 1% (1) received under $10,000.

New Grants
We have 43 new projects, and the average initial grant rose to $9,300, so with the supplemental support, the minimum average grant will be $14,300 for our newest grantees.

Film/Video: 908 applications were received, 104 moved to the panel round, and 24 projects were recommended for funding for a total of $202,000.

Visual Arts: 1880 applications were received, 95 moved to the panel round, and 19 projects were recommended for funding for a total of $199,900.

The demographic breakdown on the new grantees and on all 118 grantees is enclosed. The information is interesting and affirms the impact of the outreach work we've been doing:

Geography: We had two geographic goals: one was to increase representation in California, since we have support earmarked specifically for California artists, and the second was to increase representation from other parts of the country. We had a 13% increase in representation of California artists on the roster, and a 9% increase in states other than New York and California. We now have 24 states, plus the District of Columbia, represented. New York is first with 47% of the artists funded, California, 22%; and other states represent 31%.

Gender: Of the 118 projects, 53 (45%) are by women and 65 (55%) are by men. I'd like this to be closer to parity.

Ethnicity: For our first group of 75 artists, 26 (or 35%) represent ethnicities other than European American. Of the 43 new artists, 19 (or 43%) represent ethnicities other than European American. Overall, then, 38% of the artists funded are artists of color.

Age: As you know, we have made a commitment to supporting artists at all stages of their careers. Currently, 29% (34) of the 118 artists are 26-35; 45% (53) are 36-45; 20% (24) are 46-55; and 6% (7) are over 55.

I think we will need to keep refining the evaluation (or first) phase of the process. It was much improved this year with the addition of regional evaluators, but we're still not wholly satisfied with how it's working. We are going to continue to experiment with the process in an effort to build toward our goal of looking at work samples in the first round by the time we start the next grantmaking cycle. In retrospect, I also think we were a little stingy in the number of proposals we moved forward to the panel round (95–105). We were concerned about panel fatigue, which is definitely a consideration, but I think there are humane ways to handle a larger number of applicants (140 or so) in the decision-making phase.

Artist Services Update
In general, I'm quite pleased with how everything is working. We have reached a point where we can now begin to consolidate some of the things we've been doing into more coherent systems. To this end, we'll be creating a handbook for grantees, which will clearly outline all aspects of the program.

The database of funded projects is working well, but we're having some difficulty keeping all the information about the projects flowing to all the people who need it, as different members of the staff get information from different grantees. So, we started having monthly update meetings just to ensure that all grantee information is being shared. I now feel more secure about the process, which is important, since we'll be adding 43 new grantees and multiplying the level of complexity.

The Strategic Planning Project with Colleen Keegan has continued to be an incredible part of what we have been able to offer, and she will be at the board meeting luncheon with several of the participating artists to talk about what has been happening and what is being planned.

And, where feasible, we are beginning to provide some promotional support to projects as they reach the presentation phase.

Retreat
Plans are in full swing for our second artists' retreat, which will be held August 8-12th on the campus of Wells College in Aurora, New York. The following people are confirmed as consultants: Beau Takahara from Ground Zero in the Bay Area, Mark Russell from P.S. 122 in New York, Anthony Bregman from Good Machine, Ralph McKay, U.S. liaison to the Rotterdam Film Festival, Ed Halter from the NY Underground Film Festival, Christian Haye from The Project, Juana Guzman from the Mexican Museum in Chicago, Valerie Cassel from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston, Sharon Kahn, independent film publicist, our attorney Sue Bodine, Colleen Keegan, and staff members Nancy Scerbo (fundraising) and Athena Robles (visual arts public relations). We're waiting to hear from a number of other great folks and we hope to have the final roster together by the end of the month. Last year's format was quite successful, but naturally, we're doing a little tweaking to make it even better.

Travel/Outreach
We've continued our aggressive outreach work, albeit in a slightly more targeted fashion this year. Recently, I spoke at ArtTable, at a roundtable at Artists' Space, and on a panel at the "Race in Digital Space" Conference at MIT. We will have a small reception in Denver right after the board meeting; in June I'll do a public meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and two public meetings in Montana. Ken did a public meeting in Boston, and Esther is planning meetings in the Mid-Atlantic region over the summer. My fall is already getting busy: I'll be speaking at the National Docents Symposium in San Antonio in October, will be on a panel at the pre-conference of Grantmakers in the Arts, and will be speaking at the Alliance of Artists Communities meeting in Chicago. It also looks like I'll be on a panel for the Social Entrepreneurs Gathering in Seattle in September.

I'll be in San Francisco from May 29th through at least the morning of June 1 (and maybe the 2nd), and then in Los Angeles from the 2nd until the morning of the 7th.

The Evolving System: What We're Learning
Over the past few months, I feel I have gotten greater clarity about the trajectory of the sequenced system of support we're creating. I had a big revelation over the New Year holiday (it seems so obvious now) that what we had built so far, while very strong, would be incomplete without a component that links the work to the public in creative ways that are beyond simply assisting individual projects with promotional support.

Here's the process as I now see it:

1) Support for the Project
This includes financial support (the initial award that is recommended by a panel from the artist's field; the supplemental award ($5,000 reserved for each artist for strategic uses); special opportunities funding (usually a maximum of $2,500); and opportunities to apply for additional project funding (grants are from $5,000–$20,000). We also are working on providing support to projects on our website and promotional support where feasible. Since this part of the process also entails individual meetings with grantees, we are working strategically with artists to think about specific ways to help their projects succeed.

2) Support for the Person
Since we are interested in artists' ability to sustain themselves over the long term, we are concerned about the person as well as the project. At the moment, this is being accomplished primarily through the Strategic Planning Project, created for us by Colleen Keegan. We already have heard from some of the artists that they feel this process has been life changing. We are streamlining the process for the next round of artists, and plan to have a workbook ready by the time of the retreat in August. We also held a financial planning seminar and will continue to provide these kinds of offerings periodically. I think there is also a less tangible, but nonetheless important, value to the ongoing emotional support that the staff is providing to participating artists.

3) Nurturing the Community of Artists
This was the central idea behind the retreat and it has proven invaluable. In addition to the concrete opportunities that were generated as a result of the event, the artists who attended have stayed in touch with each other, and as I had hoped, have already begun to see each other as resources. We will hold the retreat again this summer and next. But we are also planning following it up with small group orientation sessions in the fall, to further relationships initiated at the retreat and also to make the individual sessions more effective.

4) Engaging the Public
While it is possible for a single artist to affect the discourse in any given arena, it seems to me that dialogue is most enhanced when there is a sense that certain ideas and themes are capturing artists' collective imaginations (i.e., the exhibitions of digital art at both SFMoMA and the Whitney). We are currently providing assistance to projects individually and we will continue to do so, but clearly there are some things that will be more effective if they happen collectively. I am thinking that in 2003, the culmination of our first five year cycle of support, we should not make new grants, but instead spend that time ensuring that we have done everything possible to maximize the impact of the approximately 150-160 projects we will have already supported. I'm sure you've had the experience of being incredibly excited about something that you have seen or been involved in presenting that you felt should have had opportunities to reach a broader public. Often neither the financial resources nor the human energy are available to make this happen. Because we will be able to aggregate resources at a level beyond what would generally be available to any individual artist, I think the impact of what is outlined below, if done in a concerted fashion, could be enormous.

Here are some of the components we’re thinking about for this part of the process:

a) Represent the work at important events in each field. We will ask funded artists at which festivals, markets, conferences, etc. they would most like to have representation and we will try to get to the 3–4 most important events in each discipline. This is the kind of thing that artists cannot often afford on their own, and do mailings to potential exhibitors and presenters. Since we'll have 40–45 artists in each discipline, this is a strategic use of resources. We would put together good promotional materials. These materials would also be available to each artist to be added to his/her own promotional materials. Where possible, we might also try to do regional showcase activities in conjunction with the larger event.

b) Work with curators and programmers to create "virtual" exhibitions. We are working to get information on our website about each artist we're supporting. I think it would be interesting to engage exciting programmers and curators in each discipline and have them look at all the material, put curated events together on the website, and also write about the work. Of course, it would be great if someone decided to really mount these events.

c) Provide support to organizations around the country (and perhaps a few internationally) that are interested in presenting the work. This would happen in 2004, and I think we might be able to support events in at least 12–15 places during that year. We could use these public events to serve as a catalyst for conversations about support to individual artists in that particular locale. And we are thinking about making our workshops available to artists in those regions.

d) Put thematically related projects together in order to more effectively reach particular constituencies. We have work dealing with the environment, the changing urban landscape, youth culture, immigration and assimilation, and the impact of technology and globalization, among many other powerful themes. This approach allows for myriad creative presentation possibilities.

These are the kinds of things I've been thinking about; all ideas are welcome. I have spoken to a number of the artists we've funded, other artists, and a number of arts professionals about this and they have been overwhelmingly positive about the importance of our undertaking this.

This also creates an appropriate end point for the relationship with the first group of artists. We would undertake a formal evaluation of the entire 5-year process at this time to better equip us for moving forward.