The CreateWell Fund was founded in 2016 by Jennifer Lin-Weinheimer to “support low-income artists of color in their authentic art-making and in the care of their well-being.”
The program seeks applicants from Greater Boston who self-identify as persons of color and can demonstrate financial need. Learn more about the artists and projects the fund supports.
Here, Lin-Weinheimer and Cierra Michele Peters from CreateWell discuss the program, its goals and news, and more from their work supporting artists.
In three sentences or fewer, what is your opportunity?
CreateWell Fund’s award program, which launched in 2016, is designed to provide project- and goal-based fiscal support to three to four individuals in two areas of practice: artistic and wellness. CreateWell Fund’s nonconventional award program was designed with the understanding that individual artists of color, and communities of color, navigate creative paths riddled with highly disproportionate layers of institutional inequity. CreateWell Fund aims to momentarily relieve some of those barriers by administering awards ranging from $2,000 to $6,000 as nontaxable gifts to maximize financial efficiency and to reduce the administrative burden for individual artists, relieving them of the requirement of acquiring a fiscal sponsor or organizational partner.
What upcoming dates, events, and/or deadlines for your program do artists need to know about?
Artists have until May 31, 2018 at 11:59:59 to apply to the CreateWell Fund Award. LGBTQIA artists are encouraged to apply. Please review our eligibility page to see if this program is a good fit for you.
Next month we will also be honoring our second cohort of awardees at our upcoming pop up exhibition and community event, Thank You Kindly. The exhibition will feature recent work from Cornell Coley, Porsha Olayiwola, Jordan Holmes, and Allison Maria Rodriguez, with a panel discussion moderated by Ximena Izquierdo.
The pop up will be held on June 10, 11AM-1PM at Make Shift Boston, 549 Columbus Ave, Boston, MA 02118.
What artists inspire you?
I’m inspired by artists who situate their work at the intersection of aesthetic inquiry and social change. I’m interested in artists who recognize their social power, and actively confront political and cultural structures. Lorna Simpson, Patty Chang, Mark Bradford, Tania Bruguera, Theaster Gates and Tomashi Jackson, to name a few, are all artists whose work bridges this gap.
What do you listen to while you work?
Right now I’m listening to El Guincho – Novias.
What are you currently reading?
Black Fortunes by Shomari Wills and Culture and Imperialism by Edward Said.
The CreateWell Fund is accepting applications from artists of color in Greater Boston, deadline: May 31, 2018.
Image: From LEGENDS BREATHE, a multi-channel video installation, currently in progress, by Allison Maria Rodriguez, a CreateWell Fund grantee in 2017.
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