GIA News's Blog

The Nathan Cummings Foundation has named Maurine D. Knighton as Program Director for the foundation's Arts & Culture Program.

For the past 6 years, Ms. Knighton has served as Senior Vice President at the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone where she developed, structured, managed and successfully refined the $40 million Cultural Industry Investment Fund portfolio. She introduced approaches and programs to leverage arts and culture that stimulated local economic revitalization. This appointment is a reflection of our strong commitment to social justice in the arts.

The Pabst Charitable Foundation has published its September 2010 Newsletter. Articles include a feature on the Orlando Symphony's Zora Neale Hurston Legacy Concert and an interview with Cornell Fine Arts Museum Director Scott Habes.

Download the Newsletter.

(9-7-10) "Labor Day has come and gone again with all its incongruities. It is a day when we celebrate laborers and the work ethic... by taking a day off. It's a national day of leisure where we heap well-deserved praise on workers, many of them working all around us, many of them right there working to help us enjoy this very national holiday."

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(9-3-10) A proclamation from Gov. Mark Parkinson has paved the way for the second week in September to be recognized as Arts in Education Week in Kansas, the Kansas Arts Commission announced Tuesday.

“Arts Education Week (Sept. 12-18) recognizes the importance of the arts in Kansas schools and in communities,” said John Divine, Chairman of the Kansas Arts Commission.

Read more.

(9-3-10) Rocco Landesman just returned from a trip to Minneapolis and St. Paul, where he spent two days touring arts spaces and cultural facilities. Earlier this week, he blogged about the experience, highlighting places and projects with progressive business models and tangible community impact. Read his full report here and learn about the work of his several enterprising hosts, including GIA board president Vickie Benson.

(9-2-10) Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, today announced the 2010 NEA New Play Development Program’s Distinguished New Play grants. Five theaters will each receive a grant of $20,000 to support the early stages of development for a new play with strong potential to merit a full production:

• About Face Theatre (Chicago, IL)
  for Tanya Saracho’s The Albert Cashier Project
• Children’s Theatre Company (Minneapolis, MN)
  for Larissa FastHorse’s Fancy Dancer

(9-1-10) In an opinion piece for USA Today, Abigail Disney, great-niece of Walt, argues for the preservation of the estate tax, citing both financial and social benefits, including this statement on the charitable impulse:

...the estate tax incentivizes people like me to do good with our wealth because there is no estate tax on donations to charity.

(8-27-10) In yesterday's Guardian, British theater directors Adrian Jackson (Cardboard Citizens) and David Parrish (Creation Theatre) present the pros and cons of Arts Council spending cuts.

(8-25-10) In honor of CERF+’s first quarter century, an on-line anniversary auction has been launched with 25+ art works donated by long time friends of the organization. Bidding opens today, Wednesday, August 25, 3:00pm, and closes September 25, 10:00pm. Proceeds from the auction will support the programs and services of CERF+.

Visit the online auction here.

(8-24-10) On August 16, the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage announced more than $960,000 in project grants from the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative (PTI) to thirteen theater companies, presenters, and independent theater artists. PTI grants, which support innovative theater programming in the Philadelphia area, are awarded annually on a competitive basis through panel selection. On the 2010 selections, PTI director Pam Kumin notes, "This year's PTI grants support a diverse array of imaginative and ambitious projects aimed at varied tastes and ages.