CREATING QUEER COMMUNITIES

Infrastructure for queer artists to make and present ambitious work.

For more than 25 years, Creating Queer Communities has connected LGBTQ2S+ artists with funding, production support, professional resources, and opportunities to present their work through the National Queer Arts Festival.

CQC is rooted in a simple conviction: queer and trans artists deserve real infrastructure. Artists need time, money, venues, technical support, documentation, trusted collaborators, and people who understand what it takes to bring work into the world.

THE CURRENT MOMENT

CQC is taking a pause.

QCC will not offer a Creating Queer Communities cohort during our 2026–2027 program year.

We are using this pause to rethink the program’s structure, strengthen our artist agreements and production systems, and build clearer pathways for artists with different practices and different production needs.

This work is part of QCC’s broader Building in Public campaign: a period of repairing the systems beneath our programs while inviting artists and cultural workers to help shape what comes next.

Learn about Building in Public →

RETURNING IN FALL 2027

Three ways to make and present work with QCC.

Creating Queer Communities will return in Fall 2027 with a new three-part structure. Instead of asking every artist to move through the same process, each path will offer a distinct form of artistic and production support.

Produced stage shows

Artists with work ready for full production will receive support to present a stand-alone performance as part of the National Queer Arts Festival.

QCC’s producing support may include artist compensation, venue coordination, technical production, marketing, documentation, and other resources needed to bring the work to an audience.

Produced artist showcase

Artists developing new performance work will create and present pieces together in a shared showcase.

Participants will receive artist compensation and production support while building relationships with artists working across forms, disciplines, and stages of practice.

Visual art exhibition

Visual artists will be selected through an open, juried process to develop work in response to a shared curatorial theme.

The artists will work in conversation with one another and QCC, culminating in a group exhibition presented as part of the National Queer Arts Festival.

WHAT REMAINS AT THE CENTER

The structure is changing. Our commitments are not.

Artists will be compensated for their work.
Participants will receive meaningful production support.
Artists will build relationships across disciplines and practices.
QCC will prioritize artists historically excluded from institutional support.
New work will be presented publicly through the National Queer Arts Festival.

We especially encourage QTI2SBIPOC artists, trans and nonbinary artists, disabled artists, emerging artists, and artists whose work resists easy categorization to follow the program’s return.

APPLICATION STATUS

Applications are not currently open.

CQC will return in fall 2027. Application dates, eligibility requirements, artist compensation, and the production calendar will be announced before the program opens.

In the meantime, explore work created through earlier years of Creating Queer Communities below.