faq

CreateWell Fund’s award program is a two-year term for selected artists. Typically, the minimum award request is $12,000 and the maximum request is $16,000. The awards are usually disbursed every six months over two years-time as non-taxable “gifts.” Over the past year, award disbursements were more flexible and given out based on awardee and project needs.

Please read our FAQ below, if your question is not answered here you can reach out to thecreatewell@gmail.com.

Who do we fund?

Individual Artists. . .
  • Who are 18 years or older.
  • Who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or Person of Color.
  • Whose current economic situation can be described as cash-poor.*
  • Who reside in the Greater Boston Area (see here for a full list of eligible towns and cities).
  • Who need monetary resources to actualize a new artistic work that they want to create without having to consider the work’s profitability, commercial viability, time-cost benefits against day job(s), funder restrictions, or any other constraints.
  • Who need monetary resources to support their self-determined care.**
  • Who are committed to paying themselves for their own creative labor.
  • Who are rooted and sustaining connections in the communities they are a part of

Why did you extend the length of the award term?

In 2019, we extended the length of the award based on the following considerations:
  1. We understand that most of the artists applying are not full-time artists; with day job(s), healthcare responsibilities, and/or family commitments. We want to encourage your own artistic motivation and practice, rather than create additional time constraints to carry out the project;
  2. We also hope a two-year term will provide more opportunities for deepened engagement and relationship-building with awardees and our wider CWF communities;
  3. Finally, our hope is that a two year term allows for a sustained wellness practice.

What are our funding priorities?

Our ideal applicants demonstrate commitments towards:
  1. Creating a new original artistic project that honors one’s creative practice - particularly work(s) that an artist might want to make if they did not have to consider profitability, commercial viability, time-cost benefits against day job(s), funder restrictions, or other constraints.
  2. Applicants must apply to fund the creation of a new work that is in its conceptualizing or pre-planning phase. The work must result in either a cumulative project or a series of outcomes (i.e.  performances etc.) with the intent to share publicly. All mediums and genres welcome. (Note: We do not fund already-developed art projects, arts or community festivals, educational programs, arts programming for nonprofits, or capital for creative businesses.)
  3. Accessing services and supports that enable or sustain a critical aspect of an artist’s overall well-being (physical, emotional, mental, and/or spiritual). 


What if the artistic project I’m proposing does not require two years to complete? Will it still be considered?

Yes, your project need not be large in scope nor have a longer timeline to be considered a good fit. We want to emphasize our interest in supporting the artist’s well-being and building relationships with awardees over finish dates.

Just as an example, if a project’s scope is smaller, the rest of the term might be used on creating different iterations of the work, securing opportunities to share the work, or seeking ideas or mentorship from alum, while wellness care continues.


*cash-poor: We use the term cash-poor to refer to negative net wealth. The racial wealth divide in the U.S. is real and staggering. And the reality is that an artist of color who earns a decent income could still be cash-poor because of generational barriers to wealth, student loans, car loans, etc. As we understand and use it, “cash-poor” is an umbrella term that encompasses individuals who currently have negative monetary wealth, whose causes fall under a broad range of complex considerations such as income history, debt, and generational access / barriers that have been passed down. It is also a way to specify the resource that is lacking - cash. Not worthiness nor spirit nor character nor intellect nor wisdom nor compassion nor integrity, creativity, talent.

**self-determined care: We’ve adopted this term from adrienne maree brown’s amendment to the widely used term “self-care.” While still a useful term, “self-care” can imply that the care of an individual is an isolated responsibility and act, wherease "self-determined care" places the individual's agency and participation in the center but leaves room for the components of connection, community, and collective care. The latter of which CreateWell believes is integral, necessary and critical.