Kindle Project, an experimental philanthropy lab, has announced a new grantmaking program called Boomerang which aims to give artist grantees the ability to help shape the distribution of philanthropic dollars. The recipients of the organization’s upcoming Makers Muse Artist Awards will each be offered a Flow Fund to recommend be reallocated to an organization or project of the artists’ choosing. The project aims to embolden artists and discover new unusual projects, creators, and ideas by placing decision-making power in the hands of grantees.
Monica's Blog
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The National Endowment for the Arts’ digital story series United States of Arts has been nominated for a 2016 Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series category. A key feature of United States of Arts is the collection of more than 60 three-minute episodes highlighting the stories of arts and culture; one from every U.S. state, territory, and region, reflecting a diverse array of cultures, people, places, and ideas.
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A new grant program of Theatre Communications Group assembles teams of three or more nonprofit organizations to design and implement audience engagement and community development strategies. Funded by the Doris Duke Chariatable Foundation, the inaugural Audience (R)Evolution Cohort Grants have been awarded to 9 projects representing 32 partnering organizations for a total of over $1.18 million. TCG will also provide additional general operating support equivalent to 30 percent of each award.
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The Joyce Foundation has announced that Tracie D. Hall, currently deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, has been appointed director of the foundation’s culture program. She will join Joyce in mid-November after readying Chicago’s Public Art Plan and Year of Public Art initiative for launch late this year and in early 2017.
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Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF) announced that executive director Alan W. Cooper will retire effective May 2017. As executive director of the foundation since 1994, Cooper has been responsible for all aspects of leadership and oversight leading to substantial growth in programs and services that have had extensive impact for both audiences and artists in the mid-Atlantic region and beyond.
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The Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis/Community Arts Training (CAT) Institute and the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture will host a national convening of artists, activists, policy-makers, and community organizers on November 17–19 in St. Louis, Missouri. The CULTURE/SHIFT 2016 convening aims to generate and amplify creative strategies for social change.
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From National Endowment for the Arts:
It is with great sadness that the National Endowment for the Arts acknowledges the passing of former NEA Chairman Frank Hodsoll. As the NEA’s fourth chairman, Hodsoll served from 1981 to 1989 under President Ronald Reagan.
During Hodsoll’s tenure, the NEA launched important new initiatives such as the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships (known then as the American Jazz Master Fellowship), an annual honorific recognizing distinguished jazz artists, and the National Medal of Arts, a White House initiative, managed by the NEA, that each year recognizes a group of the nation’s great artists. Hodsoll’s chairmanship also featured a focus on building infrastructures and support networks for the arts, cultivating new audiences, and fostering sustainability among arts organizations.
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In the latest issue of the GIA Reader, Jen Gilligan Cole writes on “Expanding Cultural Family: Funders, Tools, and the Journey toward Equity.” The article discusses how the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission evaluated and adapted its grantmaking programs with a racial equity lens.
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A recent article in The Washington Post highlights Canada’s shifting approach to arts funding and how it compares to common approaches in the United States and other Western countries:
As much of the Western world flirts with retrenchment into a nativist crouch, Canada is doubling down on what [Melanie Joly, minister for Canadian Heritage,] describes as the basic “social contract,” which has always included the arts as a fundamental part of the national budget. But she and [Simon Brault, the head of the Canada Council for the Arts,] also stress the need to reform the existing system of cultural funding.
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New research by Americans for the Arts provides an in-depth look at public perceptions and attitudes about the arts in the United States. An Americans for the Arts and Ipsos Public Affairs survey of more than 3,000 American adults over the age of 18 provides current insight on topics including support for arts education and government arts funding, personal engagement in the arts, the personal benefits and well-being that come from engaging in the arts, and whether those benefits extend more broadly to the community.