Creative Capital Workshops
Charlotte Street Foundation and Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City have partnered with the national Creative Capital Foundation to offer a major initiative to build the capacity of professional visual and performing artists in the Kansas City Metropolitan area through a series of annual weekend retreats with intensive workshops for professional development. Funded by a generous contribution from the Karen McCarthy Charitable Fund, the third of three annual retreats will take place in Kansas City, Missouri, in March, 2009. Read Kansas City Star article, “Creating their Own Breaks,” about the impact of the program. View photos of Creative Capital’s 2009 Professional Development Retreat in Kansas City.
Founded in January 1999, Creative Capital Foundation is a national non-profit organization based in New York City that supports artists pursuing innovative approaches to form and content in the media, performing and visual arts, and in emerging fields. Since 2003, Creative Capital Foundation has partnered with arts stakeholders to develop and present professional development workshops for many hundreds of artists around the country.
The goal of the Professional Development Weekend Retreats is to provide a cohesive structure that helps artists to organize, plan, and sustain their creative careers. The retreat uses an integrated approach to developing skills in marketing/public relations and fundraising with a particular emphasis on strategic planning for individuals, and aims to help artists break patterns of crisis management and increase satisfaction in their art practices and careers. Visit http://pd.creative-capital.org/ for more about the Creative Capital approach to professional development.
Professional artists of all disciplines residing in the five-county Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area (Jackson, Platte and Clay counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas) were eligible to apply. For the purposes of this opportunity, a professional artist is defined as an individual who creates, on an ongoing basis, original works of art within an artistic discipline, and is pursuing this work as a means of livelihood or as a way to achieve the highest level of professional recognition. Generative artists only may apply, defined as those creating original work. Artists currently enrolled in a degree-granting program are not eligible. Applicants must be at least 21 years of age.
24 applicants were selected to attend the weekend retreat each year. Selections were made by a multi-disciplinary panel comprised of local and regional artists and arts professionals.
