Fund Your Dreams Like a Creative Genius: A Guide for Artists, Entrepreneurs, Inventors, and Kindred Spirits

by Brainard Carey

How to Get Others to Support Your Vision If you have a dream that needs backing, be it an art project, an invention, or even a business, this is the book for you. Brainard Carey offers advice with solid examples of how building relationships with sponsors, investors, grant-makers, and patrons is something every creative person can pursue. Carey draws from his extensive experience and interviews with others to show artists and creative people how to raise money without the use of crowdfunding platforms. Readers will learn how to articulate their funding needs, develop a campaign, and approach sponsors. Chapter topics Defining your funding goals Pitching a proposal Writing to someone you've never met before Conversational tactics to help you ask for funding Methods for keeping in touch with potential sponsors Real examples of artists and entrepreneurs who succeeded in gaining the support of philanthropists and patrons And much more With chapters divided between practical how-tos and case studies, Fund Your Dreams Like a Creative Genius, offers readers both instructive and demonstrative lessons in making their next big project a reality. Everyone can do it with the right tools, and Carey offers an insider's guide to an otherwise daunting process.

162 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 3, 2018

About the author

Brainard Carey lectures on art and art education. He is an artist that collaborates with his wife Delia Carey. Their collaborative, Praxis was included in the Whitney Biennial and they continue to make art, exhibit in biennials as well as conduct workshops and shows for their current project, The Museum of Non-Visible Art.

He is the host of -Lives of the Artists- a podcast on Yale University radio on the art and artists and has interviewed over 1,400 artists,


The interviews on this page are from his public affairs show on Yale radio, WYBC.

Brainard Carey was born in Manhattan, New York, and grew up in Yonkers. After attending undergraduate art school at SUNY Purchase, he moved to Rhode Island and opened a gallery and began publishing a literary magazine. Carey then moved back to New York City, where he met Delia Bajo, and cofounded Praxis, which was invited to be in the Whitney Biennial in 2002 and to be in a solo show there in 2007, as well as other venues around the world. Carey also has an educational business that helps artists to write grants, exhibit, and advance their careers.

He splits his time between New York City and a studio in New Haven, Connecticut.

Reviews

[Sheena Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read. Some of the ideas were absolutely brilliant and are ones I'll definitely use...others, not so much.

(Note: NEVER send a potential donor or business partner a perfumed letter! What a horrible idea.)

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This small book caught my eye on the "new book" shelf at the library and I thought it would be a quick way to see if I could learn more about securing financial backing as a writer.

There are certainly some quirky ideas for fundraising listed here, especially for artists. It doesn't cover things like Patreon or Kickstarter, but rather things like dinner parties, festivals, pet events, letters (yes, real, handwritten appeal letters), and even angels and venture capitalists.

I did learn some things and got some ideas, but I am content to know that my library has a copy of this book should I want to refer back to it in the future. I don't feel the need to own a copy.

[Trudonna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful

Succinct, straightforward, inspiring, valuable, - I was not prepared to do a proper review but to get my kindle to show 100 percent read I had to complete this

[Christopher Mitchell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, it was worth breezing through, I suppose.

[Pía López Copetti · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stick with a blog. More realistic than this book

[Brainard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this book, if you have any questions, just ask me through my author age. Thanks for reading :)