Overview

The Fund for Women Artists is a non-profit corporation based in Western Massachusetts, which provides grant-writing and other management services to women in the arts. The organization's main goals are to increase the diversity of women's images in theatre, film, and television and to increase women's employment in the arts.

Founded in 1994, The Fund for Women Artists has raised over $600,000 so far in donations and pledges for the future. During its first four years, the organization has concentrated on developing new scripts with strong roles for women and initiating educational programs which employ women artists. The Fund for Women Artists has helped to fund fifteen plays, two films, four videos, and thirteen educational projects. The script development projects have created 62 new roles for women, including 25 roles for women of color. The educational projects have been designed to provide cross-cultural theatre and music experiences for young people and women.

The Fund for Women Artists has established a strong reputation for the excellence of its services. Its 1997-98 proposal to the Massachusetts Cultural Council was ranked Best in the State in its category (i.e. number one out of thirty-one theatre proposals). The organization was specifically commended for the excellent overall quality of its work.

The Fund for Women Artists provides a range of services to help women artists and women-led arts organizations administer their projects from start to finish. In general, once a project is selected for assistance, The Fund for Women Artists helps the artists design the project, provides ongoing financial planning/budgeting advice, writes a series of proposals and/or solicitation letters to raise funds for the project, provides marketing advice and contacts, publicizes the project through The Fund for Women Artists newsletter, and assists with the bookkeeping and final report preparation. The Fund for Women Artists raises most of the money to cover the costs of these services (i.e. staff salaries, newsletter printing, and office expenses) by obtaining general operating support from individual donors, foundations, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. The artists pay minimal service fees, ranging from 5% - 10% of the money actually raised. The fees are sometimes waived entirely if the artists demonstrate financial need.

The Fund for Women Artists was created by its Executive Director Martha Richards. Richards has had a life-long commitment to women's issues and over twenty years of arts management experience. Her background includes five years as the Managing Director at StageWest in Springfield, Massachusetts and nine years at Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College in New York, where she was the Finance Director for six years and then the Executive Director for three years. Richards has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California Berkeley, and a J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of the Law. She is a member of the California Bar and was a founding board member of California Lawyers for the Arts.