Creare Foundation
Mission Statement and Goals
The mission of the Creare Foundation is to provide a vehicle for visual Artists who are survivors of traumatic, life-altering events (such as long-term HIV infection, cancer and war trauma) that will launch them on a new career as professional Artists and self-sustaining human beings. Creare believes that the experience of traumatic survival infuses unique energies into many of these people and for those who choose to express themselves through art, the visual messages produced are often profound and important to the art world and civilization.
Creare believes that the art produced by these Artists has a market value that, if tapped, could provide a "safe haven" for them to develop their talents and be exposed to the marketplace for future independent survival. The primary goals of Creare are to:
- Provide direct financial support for individual Artists
- Help establish the legitimacy of individual Artists
- Provide the marketing mechanism that will realize the market value
- Provide state-of-the-art facilities for the production and exhibition of art
- Establish a growing endowment that will achieve long-term survival of the Foundation
Most of the Artists who will be candidates for Creare are likely to be people who are financially supported through various forms of public support programs often resulting from their experiences. Many of these support programs, such as disability, are structured so as to be punitive and trap the individual into permanent poverty. Creare will utilize its experiences with Artists who face such hardship and will attempt to affect legislation affecting these programs so that they are changed to allow Artists and others to grow and prosper after reorienting their lives to a new and productive lifestyle.
The direct financial support will vary for each Artist and will be structured so as to not violate or jeopardize any public support program they may be on. Advance tax rulings will be sought so as to precisely define how direct financial support will be treated.
Direct financial support will be in the form of:
- Monthly cash stipends to assist in living costs
- Individual charge accounts to cover production and marketing costs
- Covering the costs of individual Artist websites
Marketing support will be in the form of:
- Foundation website with linkage to all related support
- Internet show events including periodic auctions
- Assistance in pricing and valuation
- Assistance in creating individual Artist websites
- Organized multiple-city show tours
- Indoor/outdoor show events at Creare gallery sites
- Maximization of publicity potential of the Creare organization and its individual members
- Utilization of mass marketing opportunities
- Developing relationships with Affiliate Galleries
Organization and Operation
The headquarters for the Creare Foundation and its first Creative Campus will be:
Sky Valley, CA 92241
The Foundation will initially have a 7-person Board of Directors yet to be formed. The Board will determine fiscal controls, the outreach program to be put into place to reach eligible members, the procedure whereby prospective Artists are accepted into the Foundation and the level of direct financial support.
All Artist members will be asked to direct a substantial portion of the proceeds of any of their art sales made through Creare, while receiving Creare benefits, to the Foundation with the remaining share distributed as instructed by the individual Artist. All Artists will retain full copyright benefits for all their work. In addition, Artists will be asked to consider a gift of their "art estate" as part of their last will and testament.
All Artists will be encouraged and assisted to form contractural relationships with Affiliate Galleries and outlets with an agreement to share any sale proceeds with the Foundation as long as they are receiving the financial benefits of the Foundation.
Sky Valley Headquarters and First Creative Campus
One of the goals of Creare is to provide state-of-the-art facilities for the production and exhibition of art to be called Creative Campuses. The first site will be the home base for the foundation located on five acres in Sky Valley, CA near Palm Springs. It is envisioned that as Creare grows, there will be other Creative Campuses at various locations around the country.
Each Creative Campus will be a place where a few Artists can come to an inspirational setting for a few-month sabbatical to develop their talents and display their art. Some of the Artists, such as painters, weavers, digitalists, pottery makers etc. will have individual live/work spaces. Others such as wood, stone & metalworkers will share workshop spaces equipped for each art. All resident Artists will share some communal spaces such as cooking/eating, conversation/meeting areas and health & fitness. All resident Artists will be asked to contribute a portion of their time to maintainence and capital improvement chores to the extent their health allows.
The grounds of the five-acre property will also serve as a display area for large-scale sculptural works being produced by the wood, stone and metal Artists. In addition, the communal areas, workshops and individual artist workspaces will serve as periodic display areas for special events. There would also likely be some kind of indoor exhibition area open to the public if local zoning allows.
A secondary, but almost equal goal of Creare is to set an example of how thoughtful design and use of natural energy resources can benefit our world through reduced energy consumption and waste reduction. In addition to the area's plentiful wind and solar, the Sky Valley property is located over hot water which adds the resource of geothermal. It is envisioned that a hot water gravity-fed system on the property could utilize the entire cycle of the hot water cooling process and provide for hot water needs, radiant heating, heated spa water, warm pool water and landscape watering.
Part of the Creare development program to be put together by the Board of Directors during the first six months will be a physical development plan for the Sky Valley property. This development plan will inclue a physical needs assessment, site diagrams, organizational programs, selection of design team and budget for the purpose of developing a funding program for future construction.
