Founded in 2016, the CreateWell Fund is the first advocacy and grantmaking initiative in the Greater Boston area to support low-income artists of color in their authentic art-making and in the care of their well-being. Living in a capital-driven society, we are immersed in social and cultural norms that place value on industriousness above our basic existence and wellness; systems enforce the validation and value of profitability over creative and artistic potential, authenticity, risk and diversity of expression. With its pilot grant program, CreateWell Fund awarded $20,000 in cash gifts in total to four individual artists whose artwork spans a spectrum of medium and genre and whose health needs range from operation recovery to preventative care.

In addition to its first grant program, CreateWell Fund also runs secondary programming: a video advocacy campaign and a community engagement program. Through the video advocacy campaign, CreateWell Fund shines a spotlight on the firsthand narratives of local artists of color who share some of their unique needs and challenges through in interview format. The first set of 4 vignettes were debuted at our first gathering in October 2016. Additionally, in response to artists’ needs, a community engagement program, Artist Meet Ups, was launched at the beginning of this year. The CreateWell Artist Meet Up series is an intimate monthly, and multi-generational gathering of POC artists intended to share space, build supportive relationships, facilitate dialogue, and create a constituency base that share common values of artistic authenticity, cultural equity, and well-being.

Our Mission
We invest in the belief that art is a critical human need through advocacy campaigns and grantmaking to individual artists from marginalized communities.

Our Vision
We envision a society that values the benefits and power of art so that all people have access to arts education, participation and production.