Carmen Graciela Díaz's Blog

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced more than $52 million in funding for state and jurisdictional arts agencies and regional arts organizations, the first recommended awards of the American Rescue Plan (ARP). The announcement states these funds are designed to support the arts sector as it recovers from the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Posse Foundation has launched a new arts initiative, to connect students who are focused on arts and culture from cities across the country to top arts-oriented colleges and universities, in partnership with Lin-Manuel Miranda and the Miranda Family Fund, with CalArts as institutional partner.

The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Board of Trustees recently approved more than $2.8 million in grants toward an equitable and just New Jersey. The grants include more than $350,000 in new Imagine a New Way grants, "representing Dodge’s latest step towards our commitment to becoming an anti-racist organization and centering racial equity and justice in our work," according to the announcement.

In "Buffering Against Uncertainty: Working capital and the resiliency of BIPOC-serving organizations," Rebecca Thomas principal at Rebecca Thomas & Associates, and Zannie Voss, director of SMU DataArts, delve in working capital levels of arts and cultural organizations, emphasizing on BIPOC-serving organizations.

"A bailout for live music and other event venues passed in the last relief bill. But one month after applications were scheduled to launch, they have not, and many venues are barely hanging on," reported recently NPR on the desperation of venue workers.

"In order to resolve generational wealth extraction from BIPOC and working-class communities, there needs to be more accountability for investors and funders, and more agency for these communities," write Shante Little and Curt Lyon in Alliance Magazine.

Data from 2019 analyzed by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows growth in the arts and cultural sector before the coronavirus pandemic.

"Amidst both a catastrophic pandemic and calls for reformed funding practices (especially in support of BIPOC communities), philanthropic giving to arts and culture provides a unique opportunity for funders to reevaluate their funding, evaluation, and decision-making processes," writes Michael Sy Uy at the Center for Effective Philanthropy's blog.

NOCD-NY and Arts & Democracy recently convened a peer learning exchange about how stories, narrative, and cultural power can help create a just and liberatory vision for the future at the "Narrative Power, Cultural Strategies and New Civic Vision" event.

In "Building Trust Through Grantee Feedback," Charlotte Brugman of the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) explores the importance of trust between funders and grantees in a conversation with leaders of India's Rohini Nilekani Philanthropies.