Jaime Sharp's Blog

"The Creativity Pioneers Fund (CPF) catalyzes transformational social change by investing in, connecting, and championing cultural and creative organizations that advance bold and unconventional practices for building a more just, inclusive, and equitable world. Working with and alongside organizations, donors and other stakeholders across the creative ecosystem, the Creativity Pioneers Fund aims to mobilize a collective effort to advance Creativity for Social Change."

From The Lewis Prize for Music: We are thrilled to announce that The Lewis Prize for Music, a philanthropic music arts organization committed to advancing systems change through Creative Youth Development, is now accepting applications for its 2024 Accelerator Awards.

From Toledo Museum of Art: The Toledo Museum of Art (TMA) has committed to invest $1 million in the new Inclusive Creative Economy Strategy launched by Upstart Co-Lab, a nonprofit impact investing leader that connects capital with creative people and companies in the creative industries delivering both social impact and financial return. This Strategy is the first of its kind in the U.S. 

From National Endowment for the Humanities: The Department of the Interior and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced a new inter-agency partnership to expand the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative through the collection of oral histories and digitization of records documenting the experiences of survivors and descendants of federal Indian boarding school policies. NEH has committed $4 million to support the digitization of records from the United States’ system of 408 federal Indian boarding schools and the creation of a permanent oral history collection, documenting the experiences of the generations of Indigenous students who passed through the federal boarding school system.

From National Coalition for Arts' Preparedness and Emergency Response: Raleigh, NC, Olympia, WA, Jackson, MS, and Trenton, NJ are among the communities which will be served by a new Crisis Analysis & Mitigation Coach. Ten arts administrators have been selected for training by NCAPER, the National Coalition for Arts’ Preparedness and Emergency Response, and Air Collaborative.

From Lyrasis: Emergency response and preparedness for performing arts organizations can be a difficult task for individual organizations. This free 2 hour webinar will demonstrate how working with multiple organizations in a network for disaster management can be accomplished. The history of networking for improved emergency preparedness in the cultural heritage, arts, and government sectors will be examined, with an exploration of existing networks.

"At the end of last year, the Crenshaw Dairy Mart (CDM), a nonprofit cultural space rooted at the intersection of art and activism, announced its upcoming Fellowship for Abolition and the Advancement of the Creative Economy (CDM-FAACE). The first three artists selected as fellows are Autumn Breon, juice wood, and Oto-Abasi Attah; they will each receive a $100,000 stipend and healthcare," said Matt Stromberg for Hyperallergic. "The theme of the inaugural fellowship is 'Inglewood and Prototyping the Abolitionist Imagination,' stressing the importance of CDM’s location in Inglewood, a historically Black city from the 1960s through the ’90s (though Latinos are now the majority), bordered by South Central LA to the East, the 405 freeway to the West, and the 105 freeway to the South. All three fellows have roots in Inglewood, and they spoke about the impact that restrictive housing covenants (known as redlining) and freeway construction have had on communities of color in South LA."

From Upstart Co-Lab: The “creator economy” is the online ecosystem of platforms, products and services that enable independent content creators to make their work, build their audiences, monetize their ideas, and manage their careers. Technology is transforming how creative work is produced, distributed, compensated, and enjoyed — while simultaneously expanding who gets to tell their stories and who sees their own experiences represented online. Upstart Co-Lab believes impact investors can play a role to ensure the values of diversity, equity, inclusion and access are prioritized in this rapidly growing sector.

The latest in a series of deep dives into key creative industries, this report looks at a fast-growing segment of Upstart Co-Lab’s pipeline of impact investment opportunities in the U.S. creative economy.

Today, President Biden announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. The President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH) was founded in 1982 by Executive Order to advise the President on cultural policy.

Check out the latest coverage of the Sphinx Organization on PBS. It spotlights their work in Detroit and features Sphinx Virtuosi that performed at the 2017 GIA conference in Detroit. Stream the story here.