Creative Capital

Our Story

In 1999, Creative Capital embarked on a mission to reinvent cultural philanthropy and fulfill the needs of the country’s most innovative artists. Founded in response to the culture wars of the 1990s and the NEA’s termination of the majority of its individual grant programs, Creative Capital introduced a ground-breaking model of support for some of the country’s most innovative artists. This fierce commitment to freedom of expression has led to the selection of exceptional projects that challenge cultural and aesthetic conventions and push boundaries in a range of artistic disciplines.

How It Began

Creative Capital began as an experiment to see what would happen if artists were afforded the same opportunities as entrepreneurs in other sectors. Taking inspiration from venture capital concepts, Creative Capital’s program of support was built on the core principle that time and advisory services are as crucial to artistic success as funding.

In 1999, under the leadership of founding director—and now president—Ruby Lerner, the organization set out to award its first grants in four major arts disciplines: Emerging Fields, Film/Video, Performing Arts and Visual Arts. In hopes of attracting a range of diverse artistic visions and practices, Creative Capital elected to offer an open application rather than the nomination-only process used by many peers in the field. Additionally, in its first years, the organization initiated a nationwide outreach campaign to encourage artists across the country to apply and was among the first art foundations to accept applications online and by mail, promoting accessibility. The strategy worked, and Creative Capital received about 1,800 applications in its first year. It continues to receive as many as 2,500 applications each grantmaking year.

As Creative Capital’s artist ranks grew, its leaders and artists realized that exceptional literary works often did not fit into one of the four granting disciplines. In 2005, Innovative Literature was added as the fifth Creative Capital discipline, with four inaugural grantees.

Not Just A Grant

After announcing the first 75 grantee projects in 2000, Creative Capital began working closely with the artists to build its program of Artist Services, beginning with the first Artist Retreat, where dozens of consultants and arts professionals came together to exchange ideas and expertise with grantees.

The Artist Retreat, which has continued in every grantmaking year since 2000, is a crucial component of Creative Capital’s unique four-part approach, which was developed to help artists map out plans for their projects, careers and lives. After just a few years, grantees were customizing the Artist Services Program to meet their individual goals. Whether an artist’s goal is getting tenured at a teaching job, buying a home or securing additional funding for a project, Artist Services has always aided Creative Capital artists in their ambitions. Creative Capital saw how small, concrete achievements could transform an artist’s outlook on what was possible, both professionally and personally, and began examining ways to adapt the program to support a greater number of artists.

In 2003, Creative Capital launched the Professional Development Program (PDP) to share with a wider community of artists some of the tools and strategies that had been developed for grantees. PDP developed a menu of workshops in partnership with arts organizations nationwide, covering strategic planning, PR/marketing, fundraising, and financial and time management skills. A team of arts consultants and grantees who are trained in the Creative Capital curriculum lead all workshops, and as the field evolves, PDP’s offerings grow. The peer-to-peer model has been mutually beneficial: participants hear first-hand about different paths to success, and Creative Capital grantees have a way to give back to the artist community.

After the first year of funding all four disciplines, Creative Capital implemented a multi-year grantmaking cycle, funding individual disciplines in different years and including a follow-up year to better steward grantees through the production and premiere processes. The organization is now on a seven-year cycle: Film/Video and Visual Arts grants in Year 1; Emerging Fields, Performing Arts and Literature grants in Year 2; and follow-up with grantees in Year 3. These three years repeat in Years 4, 5, and 6; the cycle ends in Year 7 with a Capstone period, which is a second follow-up year. Creative Capital completed an extensive, multi-stage evaluation process during the Capstone year of 2011, and the seven-year cycle has begun again in 2012, with 46 new grants awarded in Film/Video and Visual Arts.

What’s Next

Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has committed nearly $25 million in financial and advisory support to 372 projects representing 463 artists, and has reached an additional 4,000 artists through its Professional Development Program. Creative Capital has also engaged the services of hundreds of arts professionals for consultations, one-on-one coaching and application review.

Creative Capital is excited by the countless artists yet to discover, whose creativity may impact and transform our culture in ways yet unimagined--artists to whom Creative Capital will provide crucial support, guidance and encouragement as they fulfill their ambitions.

MAJOR MILESTONES

1999
• In response to the culture wars of the 1990s, Creative Capital is founded with support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and 22 additional funders

2000
• 1,800 artists apply for funding
• 75 inaugural grantees selected in four disciplines—Emerging Fields, Film/Video, Performing Arts and Visual Arts
• First Creative Capital Artist Retreat held

2001
• 43 projects in Film/Video and Visual Arts receive new grants, bringing the total to 118 projects

2002
• 40 Emerging Fields and Performing Arts grantees bring the ranks of grantees to 158
• Creative Capital’s funder base expands to 80

2003
• The Professional Development Program launches
• Following his experience at the 2002 Artist Retreat, Ronald Feldman presents Americ@n Dre@m, an exhibition that includes more than 30 Creative Capital artists, at Ronald Feldman Fine Arts in New York City

2004
• The Warhol Foundation renews its support for Creative Capital with a $10 million matching grant
• Barbara Hammer, a 2000 Film/Video grantee, becomes the first artist to return a portion of her project’s proceeds to Creative Capital, fulfilling an important symbolic aspect of the venture capital model
• Creative Capital begins managing the Multi-Arts Production Fund, founded by the Rockefeller Foundation and now funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which provides project-specific funding to playwrights, choreographers, directors, composers and performers experimenting in any performance tradition or discipline

2005
• The second grant cycle begins with 41 new projects in Film/Video and Visual Arts, bringing the total number of Creative Capital projects to 199
• Two more grantees make paybacks to Creative Capital: Sandi DuBowski and Sam Green

2006
• Innovative Literature, Creative Capital’s fifth project discipline, is added, with four authors receiving inaugural grants
• 39 additional grants in Emerging Fields and Performing Arts brings the total to 242
• The Creative Capital | Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program is founded in a three-year pilot phase to support writers whose work addresses contemporary visual culture through project-based grants

2007
• Creative Capital’s number of funders reaches nearly 300
• The Professional Development Program hosts its first international workshop in London

2008
• 42 Film/Video and Visual Arts grantees bring the total number of projects to 284
• Grantee Brent Green achieves payback
• Creative Capital artist presence at arts festivals, which had been growing since the organization’s inception, reaches critical mass, with 12 grantees showing at the Sundance Film Festival, eight at the Park Avenue Armory, and many, many more around the country and the world

2009
• 41 new projects in Emerging Fields, Innovative Literature and Performing Arts bring Creative Capital’s ten-year total to 325 projects
• The Warhol Foundation makes a ten-year, $15 million commitment to Creative Capital, to be matched dollar-for-dollar each year
• Grantee Lisa Kron achieves payback
• The Professional Development Program serves its 2,500th artist, having reached nearly 40 communities across the country
• The seventh Artist Retreat is the largest yet, gathering 250 artists, arts professionals and Creative Capital staff and Board
• The Warhol Foundation renews and increases its support for the Arts Writers Grant Program for an additional five years
• Creative Capital’s funder ranks grow to 400

2010
• Creative Capital becomes the subject of a Harvard Business School Case Study
• The Museum of Modern Art presents a retrospective of films Creative Capital has supported in its first 10 years, including work by more than 40 artists

2011
• A new ancillary program, the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards, is launched in partnership with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
• Creative Capital’s number of funders over its history exceeds 500
• The Professional Development Program serves its 4,000th artist and reaches more than 50 communities across the country

2012
• 46 new projects in Film/Video and Visual Arts are awarded grants, bringing the Creative Capital’s total number of supported projects to 372
• Expanded and enhanced Artist Services are rolled out for Creative Capital’s current, incoming and alumni grantees
• Creative Capital will become the subject of a second Harvard Business School Case Study