Artist selections have been made, and applications are no longer being accepted.  The following is for informational purposes only.

Overview

The Division of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Capital Foundation is presenting two Creative Capital Foundation Weekend Professional Development Retreats for Artists. The weekend retreats are open to creative/generative artists, not interpretive (ex. the composer over the violinist; the playwright over the actor) residing in Florida and will take place in Seaside, Florida on February 9-11, 2007 and in Winter Park, Florida at the Crealdé School of Art on May 11-13, 2007.

Retreat Objective

Founded in 1999, Creative Capital Foundation is a national non-profit organization based in New York City that supports artists. Since 2003, Creative Capital Foundation has partnered with arts stakeholders to develop and present professional development workshops for hundreds of artists around the country.

The Professional Development Weekend Retreats are designed to deliver skill-building opportunities to artists living and working in Florida. The goal of the retreats is to provide a cohesive structure that will help artists to organize, plan, and sustain their creative careers. The retreats will use an integrated approach to developing skills in marketing/public relations and fundraising with a particular emphasis on strategic planning for individuals. The retreats also aim to help artists break patterns of crisis management and increase satisfaction in their art practices and careers.

Strategic Planning is the Foundation

Strategic planning is a step-by-step process to help identify, acquire, and build skills needed to reach goals with individual projects and/or career objectives. As artists articulate their project and career goals more clearly, they are better able to move forward and use each successive project as a career-building catalyst. Strategic planning also provides a framework to organize the concepts of marketing/public relations and fundraising.

Tools to Promote and Support Your Work

The marketing/public relations and fundraising portions of the retreats will emphasize fundamental tools and their applications. These tools begin with the ability to communicate clearly and effectively about work and the ability to target appropriate audiences, funders, and other stakeholders.

Artists Help Each Other

The retreats will be co-led by professional consultants and trained Creative Capital grantees so that participants benefit from the consultants’ considerable experience in their fields, as well as the artists’ personal perspectives and experiences, in the belief that artists are often the best resource for each other. The retreats will encourage opportunities for group and individual interaction.

*For more information on the Creative Capital Foundation’s approach to professional development for individual artists, visit http://www.pd.creative-capital.org.

Eligibility

Professional artists of all artistic disciplines residing in Florida are eligible to apply to participate in the 2007 Retreats.

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 a way to achieve the highest level of professional recognition. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age. Non-professional students pursuing undergraduate or graduate degrees or non-professionals who engage in the arts as a hobby are not eligible to apply. This workshop is geared towards mid-career artists with an established body of work.

Application Information

Interested artists should complete the application and submit by mail postmarked by November 20, 2006. Late applications cannot be considered. A panel appointed by the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs will choose 24 applicants to be invited to attend for each retreat. Chosen applicants will attend one of the two retreats and for all three days of the retreat (Tentative times: Friday 4-8 PM, Saturday 8 AM-6PM, and Sunday 8AM-3PM). Notifications of acceptance will be sent by December 15, 2006. Chosen applicants must commit to attending the entire workshop.

Cost

The Division is able to offer this workshop free of charge to selected artist participants.  Value for the workshop instruction for the weekend, should we divide the cost between all artists would be approximately $1,000 per artist. 

The Division is able to offer this service due to generous funding by the National Endowment for the Arts, Challenge America Program.  Though the actual workshop is offered free of charge for selected artists, participants will be responsible for paying for their accommodations and transportation to attend the workshop. Approximate cost of food and housing vary. Average cost for housing is $230 and average food cost is $40 per weekend for an estimated total of $275 per workshop.

* Should you have any questions regarding the workshop logistics or content, please contact Morgan Lewis, Arts Consultant, Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, by email, or mblewis@dos.state.fl.us.  You may also contact the Division’s Special Project Assistant, Laurie Hayner at lehayner@dos.state.fl.us. 

Download application