When an artist applies for a grant—and if they’re awarded it—they generally receive funding from whatever supporting organization they’ve applied to, and are left to their own devices to fulfill a goal they laid out in their application. The artist is expected to know the ins-and-outs of the application process; to know what makes a compelling cover letter and strong application; how to best appropriate the funds they’re given; how to properly promote and market their work; network effectively; and plan for future, bigger projects to come. 

But what makes a good cover letter? What is the best way to use funds if and when an artist does receive them? How does one adequately promote their work once completed? How does an artist even apply for a grant? 

These questions point to a gap in many artists’ professional development, a gap that kills hundreds of burgeoning careers and stops a slew of potentially great artists from ever taking the step to fund their work with a grant. 

When artist Lauren Falls was looking for a grant to help fund her work, the weight of all of those questions fell solely on her. Questions she was, at least, somewhat familiar with. 

“I’ve helped friends who are artists with their grants,” she says, “I just never took the plunge.”

Like many artists, Falls had always known about grant opportunities, “but I was unsure if I qualified,” she says. A killer gap in professional development kept the plenty-capable artist that Falls already was from taking the leap.

Lucky for Falls, a solution was in town.

Education and confidence-building were core to the creation of The Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County’s Creative Impact Cohort (CIC) program. Staff realized that without something new, promising careers like Falls’ might have stalled, or ended altogether.

“A lot of our Arts Council staff are artists, so we’re in regular conversation with local artists through our programs and grant work,” says Kashia Knight, Arts Education Manager at The Arts Council—one of two staff that run the Creative Impact Cohort (CIC) program. “Over time, we kept hearing the same need: to fill a gap in professional development support for our talented community. The [CIC] was created to meet those needs.” 

The CIC program is part of a concerted effort by The Arts Council. Through programs like CIC, and spaces like their freshly opened ArtsXL space, their mission is to enrich the community by elevating the arts, bolstering cultural tourism to Fayetteville, and enabling artists to create more opportunities for themselves and their fellows. 

“The arts community is a major economic driver in Cumberland County,” says Michael Houck, Director of Grants and Allocations at The Arts Council, who also works with Knight in running the CIC. “And we want to see it strengthened beyond organizational capacity building,” they say. Houck refers to the CIC as an “evolution” of the standard grant model, “designed to develop business skills among our individual artists working in Cumberland County,” but one that also allows for “more risk in awarding emerging artists who have amazing, brilliant artistic visions but lack experience getting to the finish line.”

The hope is that by pairing funding with structured professional development, artists will leave the cohort “more confident than when they came in,” Knight says, but also more connected. “It’s a cohort model, so artists move through the experience together over several months, meeting in person for learning, support, and accountability.”

Because it’s difficult enough finding time and energy for one’s craft as an artist these days, let alone for learning and honing skills on the business side of things. Just as the late German artist Martin Kippenberger said: “A good artist has less time than ideas.” With nothing to say for actually securing funds to bring those ideas to life. But with the support of other artists, and professionals on the receiving end of grant applications, otherwise starving artists might have a chance to pursue their dreams, and find a little more time to bring their ideas to reality.

“The interactions have been uplifting for sure,” says Knight. “… It’s always great to see cohort members offering aid to one another.” The artists, she says, have built community quickly: “They now have accountability partners among themselves, which has helped them stay motivated, encouraged, and moving forward together.”

For Falls, the results of that community have already been tangible. 

“I was in the process of producing a solo art show,” Falls says, who first read about the CIC in a newsletter from The Arts Council, and wondered if it might be exactly the thing she needed to help produce her art show. “I realized that I should at least try to apply,” she says. So apply she did.

Not long after submitting her application, she was accepted, and received her very first individual artist grant.

Falls was thrilled: “Plus it was a huge financial relief,” she added, enabling her to fund the supplies she needed for her show.

Falls was lucky to already know a few of her peers in the cohort, but got to learn more about each of their projects, how they got to where they were, and what they’ve learned along the way. 

Each session focuses on a different topic or tool to help the cohort’s professional development, and the small, tight-knit nature of the group allows for conversations about what excites each of them, and dialogue on what blockers they face.

After just a few months in the cohort, during which Falls says The Arts Council’s staff were “extremely helpful and supportive,” the date of her art show rolled around. Either as testament to the CIC’s efficacy, or to their ability to bring in artists who will benefit the most from their teachings and community, Falls describes the show as everything The Arts Council’s staff might have hoped for. 

“I wanted not only to showcase my work but also exhibit creatives within our community and allow them creative freedom to showcase their talents,” she says, naming a few of the folks that stood out as highlights, including a talented cellist who performed at the reception. The show was “a dream that I was able to make come true,” she says—interactive, engaging, and full of friends and colleagues from all stages of her life.

When asked about what success looks like for a member of the cohort, Knight described something familiar: “I want emerging and established artists to continue building real relationships and finish with a wider personal artist directory, people they can call, collaborate with, and cross-promote with.”

A further goal of CIC is to create future career pathways for individual artists by building and improving their skill sets that are relevant to the Cumberland County workforce. Additionally, they hope that the elevated capacity of these artists will have a lasting, positive impact on Cumberland County’s arts and cultural tourism landscape.

That’s exactly what was on display in Falls’ recent art show. She’s a model for the program’s tenets, it seems—even before completion.

Of course, she has more concrete goals for the remainder of the program beyond the art itself, like “learning about taxes and LLCs.” Maybe a little less exciting than the promise of fostering artistic community, but as any artist who’s turned their craft into their livelihood might tell you: practical knowledge is what keeps an artist from starving, when passion and ability are sometimes just not enough.