Case Study
Alison Cornyn and Sue Johnson - 360 Degrees
By Aaron Landsman, December, 2002

When Picture Projects collaborators Alison Cornyn and Sue Johnson applied to Creative Capital to support their web installation 360 Degrees, they didn't realize the foundation would also help them re-imagine their whole way of both making art and doing business. Through financial awards totaling more than $32,000, Strategic Planning support, and participation in a community of artists at the annual retreats, Alison and Sue have established Picture Projects as both a commercial and artistic venture, and 360 Degrees has gone on to win awards in both art and journalism. As Alison puts it, "There was so much support from Creative Capital for the project that we just felt like we could go further with it."

Alison and Sue initially received $5,000 from Creative Capital to help them launch 360 Degrees (www.360degrees.org), an interactive online documentary about the criminal justice system. Featuring first-person testimony from inmates, families, and prison staff, the website includes photography and QuickTime movies, an ongoing story series, and participatory forums on such issues as The Rockefeller Drug Laws.

In January 2001, 360 Degrees launched, and Alison and Sue used a $5,000 Strategic Support award to hire a public relations assistant and develop promotional materials for the website. As a result, 360 Degrees has garnered positive press in The New York Times, Village Voice, Time Out, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. Through a partnership with NPR, which plugged the site's launch on the air, 360 Degrees quickly gained worldwide attention, receiving an average of 10,000 hits daily. After nearly two years on the web, www.360degrees.org still gets about 5,000 hits a dayœfrom universities across America and from countries around the world. The site has won numerous awards, including a Webby Award for net art and a Pew Center for Civic Journalism Batten Award for Innovation.

Alison and Sue both attended the 2000 and 2001 artists' retreats, and Alison came alone to the 2002 retreat. As she puts it, "The retreats were amazing»the people we met, the work we saw, the ideas we came away with have changed us." Perhaps the most significant change Alison and Sue experienced was through a series of consultations with Colleen Keegan, both during and following the retreats. As part of the Strategic Planning Project, Keegan helped the artists develop a business plan to launch Picture Projects as a for-profit venture that would support their artistic work. Sue and Alison also secured a credit line for the new business with help from Creative Capital's contact at Chase Bank.

At a time when the web is perhaps the least reliable medium for new business startups, Picture Projects has surpassed initial projections. To date, the pair has been commissioned for several large and small web projects, including NPR's recent Sonic Memorial on the history of the World Trade Center. As women artists operating their own business, Sue says that, "Colleen's adviceœand even Ruby Lerner's process of building Creative Capitalœhave been invaluable examples to follow," as Picture Projects expands.

As the business has grown, so has the impact of 360 Degrees. Alison and Sue were invited to participate in a panel at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival, and the two used a $20,000 Second Round Funding grant to build the outreach component of the site, known as the Social Action Network. They have also developed a traveling exhibition of the timeline of the criminal justice system in conjunction with 360 Degrees, which was awarded significant funding by the NEA and the Open Society Institute.

As one of the first round of Creative Capital grantees in 2000, both Sue and Alison say they feel included in a close community. "I really feel I've bonded with the artists from that first yearœwe still email each other," says Sue. And according to Alison, "Even more than the money, it's the mentoring, the support, and the feeling of family that Creative Capital has given to us."