Our Awards

Creative Capital Awards recognize boundary-pushing artists working across an array of disciplines at catalytic moments in their careers. Since its inception, the Creative Capital Award has funded over 1,000 visionary artists working in the visual arts, performing arts, dance, theater, jazz, film, literature, technology, and multidisciplinary and socially engaged forms.

Creative Capital Awardees have presented across the country at leading venues, festivals, and institutions, including MoMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, LACMA, Broadway, Venice Biennale, Sundance Film Festival, Walker Art Center, and SXSW. Awardees have received other prestigious honors and accolades, including: 169 Guggenheim Fellowships, 21 MacArthur “Genius” Fellowships, 6 Pulitzer Prizes, and 3 Academy Awards, and 15 Academy Award nominations.

Notable awardees include: Jeffrey Gibson, Simone Leigh, Anicka Yi, Guadalupe Maravilla, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Larissa FastHorse, Sidra Bell, Alice Sheppard, Terri Lyne Carrington, Etienne Charles, Garrett Bradley, Laura Poitras, Cristina Ibarra, Chris Eyre, Cory Arcangel, Rachel Rossin, Titus Kaphar, Percival Everett, Maggie Nelson, Rebecca Solnit, and many others.

The Creative Capital Award is the only national open call grant program dedicated to funding artists creating new work in every discipline, including visual arts, performing arts, film, literature, technology, multidisciplinary, and socially engaged forms. Creative Capital’s unrestricted project grants are purposefully made through an open, national, multidisciplinary, external review process for proposals for new artistic works.

Since 2020, Creative Capital receives thousands of proposals each year, demonstrating the urgent and widespread need for project support.

A Transformative Grant

The Creative Capital Award provides individual artists with unrestricted project grants (up to $50,000) and professional development services for the creation of innovative, original, groundbreaking new artistic works. Creative Capital’s transformative giving approach is built on the principle that artists need funding as well as networks and advisory services in order to realize ambitious projects and thriving careers.

Building Thriving Community

Woven into the ethos of the Creative Capital Award is a spirit of generosity—helping artists nurture relationships that will carry them through their professional careers. Creative Capital hosts regional and national artists gatherings, inviting awardees to come together with industry experts, cultural producers, arts professionals, and philanthropists to preview new projects, discuss opportunities and challenges, and celebrate our artist-centered community.

In honor of 25 years of grantmaking, Creative Capital has expanded its support of individual artists with the launch of the new State of the Art Prize. Through the open call process for the Creative Capital Award, Creative Capital will also select recipients of the State of the Art Prize, which aims to recognize one artist residing in each U.S. state and territory with an unrestricted artist grant of $10,000 per artist.

For the 2026 and 2027 grant cycles, all applicants to the Creative Capital Award are automatically considered for the State of the Art Prize and are evaluated for the Prize using the same criteria; there is no separate application process. Creative Capital Awardees may not apply for the State of the Art Prize. State of the Art Prize winners may apply to future grant cycles for the Creative Capital Award. Both the Creative Capital Award and State of the Art Prize are one-time distinctions.