Laura Zucker, executive director of Los Angeles County Arts Commission and current GIA board member, was recently interviewed alongside Romina Boccia of The Heritage Foundation about the motivations and potential impacts of eliminating federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The proposal for these cuts was developed by The Heritage Foundation, which is currently advising the Trump administration’s budgetary decisions. The interview discusses The Heritage Foundation's reasoning for proposing these cuts, the role of federal funding in the arts and public media, and how the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors might respond.
Monica's Blog
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Recent research published by Barry Hessenius provides an overview of state arts advocacy in the US. "This scan sought to identify which states were organizationally active on the advocacy stage, the assets each state had to carry out its advocacy mission, which states were only minimally equipped to be effective advocates, and which states currently had no real operational advocacy organization." The characteristics evaluated included staffing, funding sources, communications, major initiatives launched, local political climate, and more.
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On her blog, Better Together, Grantmakers in the Arts President & CEO Janet Brown offers a moment of reflection and encouragement for arts funders in this time of transition: “In times of change and instability, there is also opportunity — opportunity to defend our values and more deeply assess whether those values are being implemented in our practice. A challenge lies in determining how our voices are used and to what end.”
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From ArtNet News:
United States Artists (USA) has named Deana Haggag as its new president and CEO, effective April 3. Founded in 2006, USA offers unrestricted grants to artists working in the following fields: architecture and design, crafts, dance, literature, media, music, theater and performance, traditional arts, and visual arts. Haggag has been the executive director of the Contemporary, Baltimore’s nomadic, non-collecting art museum, since the summer of 2013.
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The Aspen Institute Artist-Endowed Foundations Initiative (AEFI) and University of Miami School of Law have developed a week-long seminar for individuals who currently have, or will have, policy-setting and leadership responsibilities for artist-endowed foundations — directors, officers, trustees, board members, senior staff. The seminar, to be held April 30 – May 5 in New York City, is based on findings of AEFI’s National Study of Artist-Endowed Foundations and subsequent research publications, and focuses specifically on the strategic concerns of leaders orienting themselves to the field.
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From The Washington Post:
A published report [from The Hill] that members of the Trump administration are considering sweeping budget cuts that include eliminating cultural agencies have left some arts leaders with a strong feeling of deja vu.
Eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities would cut $296 million from the federal government’s almost $4 trillion budget, saving taxpayers little but sending a symbolic message about the importance of small government. The report also said the incoming administration is considering privatizing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
“These are old ideas, some more than a decade old,” said Americans for the Arts president and CEO Robert Lynch. “We take it seriously, but there’s a budget process and a lot of points of intersection.”
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Grantmakers for Effective Organizations is conducting a national survey to examine funding practices that advance nonprofit health. Directors of staffed foundations are invited to take the 2017 survey to benchmark “progress in supporting nonprofits in ways that allow them to be successful.” Results of the survey will be compiled into Is Grantmaking Getting Smarter?, GEO’s triennial report.
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The Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs announced the resignation of Nevada Arts Council administrator, Susan Boskoff. Boskoff will retire on March 31, 2017, after 24 years of service to the State of Nevada. During her tenure with the agency, Boskoff increased the agency’s capacity to attract artists, increase the diversity of arts forms created by statewide artists, and strengthen communities through advancing lifelong learning, promoting public/private partnerships and growing economic diversification at the local level.
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Wyncote Foundation has launched Wanderway, a new self-guided online course for artists and cultural organizations to learn about digital engagement. Wanderway was developed in response to feedback from a 2014 Wyncote study which indicated that many organizations had a sense that they “should be engaging digitally” but felt overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start.
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The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation recently announced a new five-year, $8 million addition to its grantmaking in support of the performing arts. In celebration of the foundation’s fiftieth anniversary, the Hewlett 50 Arts Commissions will enable San Francisco Bay Area nonprofits to work with exceptional artists from around the world to create and premiere new works of performing arts in local communities.