For 25 years, Creative Capital has offered professional development programs that have served thousands of artists across the country. Core to our mission is our belief that professional education is key to helping artists build sustainable careers, creating equity in the arts, and fostering community through horizontal, peer education models.
Sign up for our emails to receive updates about our educational offerings.
Creative Capital Frameworks: Professional Resources for Artists
Creative Capital Frameworks: Professional Resources for Artists is a suite of FREE resources for artists that include:
- Asynchronous, online courses through Creative Capital Curriculum
- Artist Lab webinars with leading art industry specialists and artists
- Monthly Artist Opportunities listings
Creative Capital Curriculum
We have innovated our approach to artist education by transforming our professional development workshops into asynchronous, online courses. The Creative Capital Curriculum combines foundational tools and knowledge for artist professional development with contemporary critical frameworks in cultural discourse.
The Curriculum is FREE for individual, personal use. Organizations are welcome to join our Institutional Membership program to help sustain the ongoing development of the Curriculum for artists. See our Curriculum Terms of Use.
Course 1: Representing Your Work: A Toolkit for Grant Writing and Promoting Your Practice
This course teaches artists concrete techniques for writing about, speaking about, and representing their practice across a variety of professional contexts, including grant applications, artist talks, and social media. The many ways artists deal in representation to make meaning, exploring questions of representation that are central to both art and politics. The course consists of eight modules, which guides users through different aspects of representing your work. These modules are asynchronous, meaning that all content is written and/or pre-recorded, and that artists can move through each module at their own pace.
Courses in Development
- Course 2: Money Basics for Artists
- Course 3: Communications Fundamentals for Artists
- Course 4: Legal Basics for Artists
CURRICULUM IN SPANISH: Our courses will be offered in Spanish to make them more accessible and inclusive through removing language barriers.
CURRÍCULO EN ESPAÑOL: Nuestros cursos se ofrecerán en español para hacerlos más accesibles e inclusivos eliminando barreras del idioma.
Creative Capital Artist Labs
The Artist Lab is a year-round series of webinars and conversations designed to enhance artists’ learning experience. Artists can tune in from anywhere in the world to hear art industry specialists and artists discuss topics related to current developments in the cultural sphere. View past Artist Labs here.
Upcoming Artist Labs
- Promotional Writing for Professional Artists: Part of Content Strategy for Artists: Promoting Yourself and Your Work Series
February 26, 2025 1PM-2PM EST - Promoting Projects and Events: Part of Content Strategy for Artists: Promoting Yourself and Your Work Series
March 26, 2025, 1PM-2PM EST
Artist Lab: Crafting Your Elevator Pitch and Sharing It on Instagram with Robin Cembalest
In the first webinar of this three-part Artist Lab series, Content Strategy for Artists: Promoting Yourself and Your Work, Robin Cembalest, a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts and popular Creative Capital coach, offers a lively mix of best practices, practical tips, and valuable insights into sharing your work.
Artist Opportunities
Every month, Creative Capital compiles a list of residencies, grant, and award opportunities as part of our commitment to sharing resources and opportunities for artists working in all creative disciplines. Read the monthly lists here.
Become an Institutional Member of Curriculum
By becoming a Curriculum Institutional Member you are joining a community committed to fostering a more equitable arts ecosystem.
Benefits of Institutional Membership
Be listed as an institutional member on our website and in our communications. Signal your support for this shared resource for artists by becoming an institutional member. Member names and/or logos will be listed on the Creative Capital website, in Curriculum communications, and in the Curriculum Member Directory.
Participate in the Creative Capital Curriculum Roundtable. The online roundtable brings together Curriculum members and industry specialists to discuss best practices in artist professional development. The roundtable provides professional development and networking opportunities for staff and faculty.
Add Your Institution’s Voice to the Curriculum Design Committee
Each member institution may appoint a representative to the Curriculum Design Committee to advise on new curricular initiatives, artist engagement, and future directions.
Receive a free sponsored listing in Creative Capital’s Artist Opportunities Listings. Artist Opportunities is a list of residencies, grants, and award opportunities, which reaches 275,000 artists each year, as part of our commitment to sharing resources and opportunities for artists.
Receive a Digital Creative Capital Impact Report and Curriculum Member Report. The Curriculum Member report outlines the number of users, demographics, popular courses, and trends we are seeing.
Share your professional development resources in the Curriculum’s Online Library for artists everywhere to access. Institutional members have the opportunity to add their own professional development resources to the Curriculum’s Online Library, which will be visible and accessible to our community of artists who access our resources and services.
For Colleges and Universities
Connect your students, faculty, and staff directly to the professional arts ecology. Signal to your students and their families that you are preparing them for a career in the arts by building and providing them with the tools and resources for their professional lives after graduation.
Demonstrate your sustained support for your alumni by continuing to invest in their careers through this critical professional development resource. Share the Curriculum with your alumni on your alumni pages and newsletters.
For Foundations & Cultural Organizations
Connect your grantees, residents, and alumni to critical professional development resources to support them during their grant period, residency, and beyond.
Institutional Membership dues are $5,000 per year for 2024/2025. Interested in becoming a member or sponsoring the Creative Capital Curriculum, please email: [email protected]
Curriculum Members
Online Educational Resources
Sundance Collab Advisor Studio
Sundance Collab is the Sundance Institute’s online learning and community platform for independent filmmakers at all stages of their creative journeys. Join Sundance Collab to learn through live events and courses, connect with other filmmakers through the Community Forum, and move your project forward with help from the directory of resources and grants and opportunities.
Financial Planning for Creatives: From Taxes to Retirement
Applying for Grants
Applying for funding can be an opaque process, and artists are often left in the dark about what makes the best application. We have compiled some articles that will help you present yourself in the best possible light to panel reviewers and granting foundations.
- The Do’s and Don’ts of Finding and Securing the Right Grant for Your Work
- How to Craft a Successful Artist Statement
- Inside a Grant or Residency Panel Process
- Applying for Grants: Overview
- How to Write a Grant Proposal with Confidence: First Steps
- How to Write a Grant Proposal with Confidence: Translating Your Ideas on Paper
- Applying for Grants: Choosing Work Samples
- Applying for Grants: Creating A Realistic Budget
- Creating Your Artist Resume
Financial Tips
From taxes to funding to budgets, an artist’s finances are often complex and multilayered. Creative Capital helps artists consider all aspects of project funding and financial preparedness across all creative disciplines.
Navigating Current Challenges
In this time of upheaval and unprecedented challenge, artists are adapting to cope with the pandemic and economic shutdown. Our archived series of free online conversations shares resources and expertise for sustainable practices, assisting communities, and more.
Career Documentation and Archiving
Career documentation and archiving are essential components of an artist’s life, practice, and legacy. These resources offer practical and multidisciplinary guidance, tips, and additional resources on how to document and archive your work.
Digital Communications
These resources provide artists with a comprehensive understanding of how to use the web to effectively communicate about their practice, exhibitions, and events, whether through email communications or social media.
Taller Archive
These resources are from Taller, a Creative Capital program tailored to address the challenges faced by Latinx artists working in multiple cultural and linguistic contexts in New York City, while fostering a supportive peer community of artists advocating for themselves and each other.