The Creative Work Fund invites artists and nonprofit organizations who are interested in applying for grants to an informational seminar Jan. 24, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., at Blak Sage Gallery, in Hollister.
The agency gives out grants for collaborative projects featuring traditional or visual artists. CWF will be giving out $650,000 in grants ranging in size from $10,000 to $40,000. The 2013 grant cycle will focus on traditional and visual arts projects. CWF has defined each as follows:
• Traditional artists create in art forms learned as part of the cultural life of a group of people whose members have a common ethnic heritage, language, religion, occupation, or region. These expressions are deeply rooted in and reflect a community’s shared standards of beauty, values, or life experiences. Often they are learned orally or by emulation. Traditional artists may excel as individual artists, work as a group, or work collectively. They may produce works in a variety of forms—oral traditions, performances, crafts, multidisciplinary works, and others.
• Visual artists include those with experience in painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, installation art, public art, drawing, crafts, graphics, ceramics, design, or artists’ books. (Video and sound-based installation artists and artists creating new genre, time-based works should apply as media artists in a future year.)
Prior recipients in traditional arts have included a Native California regalia maker, traditional Filipino and Cambodian dancers/choreographers, a Persian musician and composer, and African American quilters. Recent visual arts recipients included ceramicists, graphic designers, installation artists, painters and photographers.
“We see these projects as a means to support local artists and strengthen their associations with the work of nonprofits,” said CWF Program Director Frances Phillips. “Through promoting collaborative art-making, the Fund has witnessed artists’ working across disciplines or with new techniques, drawing attention to community needs, and connecting to the public in new ways.”
Artists are required to create new work while collaborating with an organization. The artists and organizations much live or be located in San Benito, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma or Stanislaus and have been there for at least two years.
Letters of inquiry are due March 1, at 5 p.m. CWF staff members will invite 55 partnerships to submit a detailed proposal by May 3, with grant awards to be announced in October.
Workshops:
• San Francisco: Jan. 24, 11 a.m. to noon, The Foundation Center, 312 Sutter St., 6th Floor, San Francisco (For this workshop only, sign up through the Foundation Center’s online training calendar at: http://grantspace.org/Classroom/Training-Calendar)
• Hollister: Jan. 24, 6:30-7:30 p.m., Blak Sage Gallery, 727 San Benito St., Hollister
• Oakland: Jan. 25, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Conference Room 4, Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 Ninth St., Oakland
• Vallejo: Feb. 5, 2013, 6:00-7:00 p.m., Auditorium, Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum, 734 Main St., Vallejo
• Carmel: Feb. 1, TBA
• Salinas: Feb. 1, TBA
Webinars:
(Produced in conjunction with The Foundation Center) Sign up for any one of the Webinars at http://grantspace.org/Classroom/Training-Calendar
Jan. 22, noon-1 p.m.
Jan. 28, 6-7 p.m.
Feb. 4, noon-1:00 pp.m.
