Creative Capitol Grant Application Opens March 4, 2024

For their 25th Anniversary in 2025, Creative Capital welcomes innovative and original new project proposals in visual arts, performing arts, film/moving image, technology, literature, multidisciplinary, and socially engaged forms.

Applications open on March 4, 2024, and the deadline for submitting is April 4, 2024.

The Creative Capital Award provides unrestricted project grants up to $50,000 which can be drawn down over a multi-year period, bespoke professional development services, and community-building opportunities.

Grants are awarded via a democratic, national, open call, external review process. The first round of the application process consists of 6 questions. Our goal is to fund approximately 50 individual artists creating conceptually, aesthetically, and formally challenging, risk-taking, and never-before-seen projects.

About:

Creative Capital is committed to groundbreaking ideas that challenge what art can be. As Creative Capital Awardees have demonstrated, socially impactful ideas are embedded in a myriad of artistic forms and practices. We invite artists to propose experimental, original, bold projects in the visual arts, performing arts, film/moving image, technology, literature, multidisciplinary, and socially engaged forms which push boundaries formally and/or thematically.

We invite artists to select a primary discipline for their proposals based on which experts are most suited and qualified to review the project proposal, with the understanding that radical art is often by nature interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, or antidisciplinary. By choosing to apply within a certain disciplinary category, we are asking you to choose how you want to frame the discussion around your work and to indicate which experts are most qualified to evaluate your project proposal.

2025: 50 Grants 

• • Visual Arts: including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, architecture, design, multimedia, installation, video art, performance art, new genres, craft, and socially engaged, and/or sustainable visual art-based practices
  • Performing Arts: including dance, theater (new theatrical work, playwriting), jazz, music, opera, singing, and socially engaged and/or sustainable performing arts-based practices
  • Film/Moving Image: including experimental film, short film, animation, documentary film, narrative film, and socially engaged and/or sustainable film/moving image-based practices
  • Technology: including augmented reality/virtual reality, bio art, data visualization, hardware, software, digital media, internet art, and socially engaged and/or sustainable technology-based practices
  • Literature: including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, and socially engaged and/or sustainable literature-based practices

ROUND I: Tell us your idea. Letter of Inquiry (LOI)

Along with your project title, one line project description (25 words max), project description (250 words max), resume (1 page max), and artist website (if applicable), please answer the following questions:

1. How does your project take an original and imaginative approach to content and form? Please be as specific as possible. (150 words)
2. Please place your work in context so we may better evaluate it. What are the main influences upon your work as an artist? How does your past work inform your current project? Please use concrete examples, which may include other artists’ work, art movements, cultural heritage, science, philosophy, research/work from outside the arts field, etc. (150 words)
3. What kind of impact—artistic, intellectual, communal, civic, social, political, environmental, etc.—do you hope your project will have? What strategies will you employ to achieve the desired impact? (100 words)
4. Who are the specific audiences/communities that you hope to engage through this project? Please think beyond the broader art community where possible. How are you hoping to reach them? (100 words)
5. How might your proposed project act as a catalyst for your artistic and professional growth? In what ways is it a pivotal moment in your practice? (100 words)
6. In addition to funding, Creative Capital also provides scaffolding and support services for awardees (such as expert consultations, gatherings, alumni network, workshops). How would our non-monetary services help you to realize your goals for this project and/or your long-term artistic and professional growth? (100 words)

ROUND II: Project Details

1. Project itemized budget (1 page)
2. Project timeline (1 page)
3. Work samples (see application handbook for guidelines)

ROUND III: Final Panel Review

1. Submit proof of eligibility.
2. Confirm collaborators (if applicable)
3. Project updates (optional, 100 words max)

Full application guidelines are outlined in the Application Handbook.

All applications are reviewed by external reviewers who are scholars, curators, artists, past awardees, and experts in the field. The final recommendations for the awards are reviewed and then ratified by our Board. Awardees are announced in January 2025. Under no circumstances will the reasons for the rejection of an application be provided.

Any awarded projects which are directly related to any of the 17 UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals will have the opportunity to have the “Way” or the icon of that UN Sustainable Development goal attached to their project on the Creative Capital website in effort to advance the global dialogue around these critical issues impacting the future of our communities, our planet, and beyond. In keeping with the spirit of the 17 UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, we too have an expansive definition of “sustainability” that goes far beyond climate change and the environmental challenges we face—including: good health and wellbeing, affordable and clean energy, reduced inequalities, life on land, and peace, justice, and strong institutions.

2025 Creative Capital Grant Timeline

These dates may change.

• March 4 to April 4, 2024: Letter of Inquiries (LOI) accepted
• April 4, 2024 4:00 PM Eastern Time / New York Time: LOI deadline
• June 2024: Notification of advancement to Round II
• September 2024: Notification of advancement to Final Panel Review
• January 2025: Public announcement of 2025 Creative Capital Awards

Artist Eligibility

• US citizen, permanent legal resident, or O-1 visa holder
• At least 25 years old
• Working artist(s) with at least 5 years of professional artistic practice
• Applicant may not be enrolled in a degree-granting program
• May not apply to the Warhol Foundation Arts Writers grant program in the same year
• May not have previously received a Creative Capital Award
• May not be an applicant or collaborator on more than one proposed project per year

Projects that are not eligible

• Projects whose main purpose is promotional
• Project is to fund ongoing operations of existing business
• Curation or documentation of existing work
• Projects that will be completed before January, 2025.

Juror Information

Creative Capital invites regional, national, and international experts in a wide range of disciplines to serve in our review process. External reviewers are offered honoraria for their time and expertise. All external reviewer names are confidential until the awards are announced.