Creative Capital Foundation lifts hope for financial aid to Maine artists

ROCKPORT – Maine artists could gain substantial financial support – as well as the tools to sustain and secure their creative work – through a potential partnership with the national Creative Capital Foundation.

On Friday, foundation representatives attended the Maine Arts Commission’s annual meeting as part of a broader effort to assess the formal and informal networks now in place to help artists. Creative Capital, a New York-based organization, has given nearly $5 million to support the work of 297 artists in 28 states and the District of Columbia since 1999. It uses a venture-capital approach, providing individual artists with financial aid and professional services over the long term.

In late 2005, Maine and Arizona were selected from 17 applicants for Creative Capital’s State Research Project to study whether or not its national grant-giving model could be adapted to the state level better to serve individual artists. If that’s the case, Creative Capital would launch a pilot project in one or both states in 2007.

Ruby Lerner, Creative Capital’s executive director, likens her organization to the National Folk Festival and its parent, the National Council for the Traditional Arts. She envisions Creative Capital working with a state for three or four years, forging connections with local and national donors to help the state get its own, self-sustaining program up and running.

“Should there be a determination that a model like Creative Capital’s be viable, we’d seek additional funding,” Lerner said Monday by phone from New York. “We’re happy to share with you what we’ve built, and we’re happy to work with you to see what can be built using our model.”

Alden Wilson, director of the Maine Arts Commission, says the project could result in an artists’ fund for Maine. Though grants would be given to individuals, entire communities could benefit from the economic spinoff.

“We don’t know what the size is, but it could be a million dollars,” Wilson said Friday at the annual meeting held at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockport. “I think what’s so important is that Maine and Arizona were selected – that shows Creative Capital has such a high respect for what’s going on in Maine.”

Creative Capital was founded in 1999, after the federally funded National Endowment for the Arts stopped giving individual artist grants. The foundation funds artists in all disciplines with the intention of fostering innovative work.

Maine’s own innovative spirit, embodied in its “institutional and integrated” approach to the creative economy, stood out among the 17 states that applied for the research project.

“Maine is already working on issues around the creative economy, and Maine arts groups were interested in looking at how individual artists are vital to that creative economy,” Lerner said. “It’s not just about building up organizations, but looking at how individuals contribute to the whole.”

The foundation focuses not only on creating programs, but using them to advance the careers of artists. In Maine, artist-led initiatives to develop affordable studio and living space, secure low-cost health care and ease geographic isolation appealed to the artists and arts professionals who evaluated the states’ proposals. They found Maine and Arizona to be at a pivotal point in terms of investing in their arts infrastructure.

During Friday’s meeting, Barbara Schaffer Bacon and Kathie de Nobriga, independent consultants working with Creative Capital, asked commission members to list the state’s arts assets and “deltas” – things that need to change.

“What can be gained with a closer partnership with the state?” Schaffer Bacon asked the group of nearly 70. “What’s the nature of a program that would serve Maine well?”

The answers were many and varied, but several themes emerged. Leadership at the state level, the state’s tradition as a haven for artists and the idea that Maine is a place to make not just a living, but a life, all were listed as positives. Accessibility, a disconnect between northern and southern Maine, and the level of support for arts education, artists and facilities all were mentioned as issues.

Because the partnership between Maine and Creative Capital would involve fundraising on the state and national level, commission members underscored the importance of finding new philanthropic sources so that money isn’t taken away from other ventures.

“Maine and Creative Capital would both bring resources to the table, and we’d get to new sources [in Maine] – that is the hope,” Schaffer Bacon said.

In breakout sessions, participants stressed that if the project becomes a reality, it must be sustainable. They also focused on the need to engage the private and public sectors and the need to identify organizational partners to get artists on board early on.

These recommendations will be taken back to Creative Capital, which could announce its decision as early as this fall. From there, the program would be tailored to Maine’s needs.

“At the end of the day, this is not going to be owned by Creative Capital,” Lerner said. “We’ll serve as an information broker, a catalyst, a facilitator to bring people from the state together with national funders, parallel to the role we play with our artists.”

For information on Creative Capital, visit www.creative-capital.org. For information on the Maine Arts Commission, visit www.artsmaine.org.