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New Research Illustrates California’s Arts Ecology
Posted on by Steve

California has 11,000 arts and culture nonprofits, a number that places the state ahead of most nations in the world. Californians are more likely to participate than other Americans — but arts involvement and nonprofit organizations are unevenly spread across California’s geographic and demographic communities.

New findings generated by Markusen Economic Research and commissioned by The James Irvine Foundation offer fresh illustrations of the California nonprofit arts sector and the people who take part in it. Released today, California’s Arts and Cultural Ecology details the research and its findings.

ArtPlace Could Make The Difference in Communities Across America
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From John M. Eger at Huffington Post:

...the ArtPlace idea is big, certainly bigger than anything ever done before, and has the potential to be a "game changer" if—and it's still an if in many cities—ArtPlace not only gets artists and art and cultural organizations and community leaders to think differently about renewing their downtowns, but acts as the catalyst America so badly needs to awaken to the challenges of working, playing and living in a new economy—a creative and innovative economy.
20th Century Fox Joins NAfME to Award $1 Million in Grants to 73 High Schools Nationwide
Posted on by Steve

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (TCFHE) and the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) on September 9 announced GLEE Give a Note, a campaign to donate $1 million to school arts programs across the country. Eligible high schools are invited to submit videos about why their school deserves a grant at www.GleeGiveANote.com. In December 2011, after two rounds of voting, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will name the 73 schools that will receive grants ranging from $10,000 to $50,000.

Diversity now a key tool in the fight for the creative class
Posted on by Steve

From Gail Johnson at The Globe and Mail:

Increasingly, demographic diversity—ethnic, gender, sexual, religious and so on—is proving crucial to the success of local economies. In other words, it’s no longer enough for cities to subscribe to the “if you build it, they will come” theory to attract top talent. Rather, they need to roll out the welcome mat to one and all.

“There’s no question about it any more; one of the greatest competitive advantages for any city is tolerance,” says Tom Jones, director of Smart City Consulting in Memphis, Tenn.

Metropolitan Museum’s Exhibitions Stimulate $908 Million Economic Impact for New York
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The Metropolitan Museum’s concurrent presentation of four acclaimed and widely attended exhibitions in the summer 2011 season generated $908 million in spending by regional, national, and international tourists to New York, according to a visitor survey the Museum released on September 12. Using the industry standard for calculating tax revenue impact, the study found that the direct tax benefit to the City and State from out-of-town visitors to the Museum totaled some $90.8 million.

Watts House Project Lands $370,000 Grant from ArtPlace
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From Culture Monster at the Los Angeles Times:

The Watts House Project, in which artists lend their talents to community improvement, has landed a $370,000 grant that will enable it to finish converting three houses across the street from the Watts Towers into a headquarters it has dubbed “The Platform.”
How Kiva CEO Uses Social Media to Spark a Dialogue of Change
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Matt Silverman of Mashable holds a Q&A with Kiva CEO Matt Flannery:

What does it mean to lead a non-profit in the social media age? For Matt Flannery, the CEO of micro-lending network Kiva.org, it’s about maintaining personal connections with thought leaders and engaging in constructive dialogue with his organization’s supporters.
Whiplash: Moving From K-12 to Higher Education
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Richard Kessler reports in on his blog, Dewey 21C:

For those who have followed Dewey21C, hopefully you’ve noticed that I have been silent since the end of July. A month off from work followed that last post, and as we’re blowing through September, I have started a new chapter in my career as Dean of the Mannes College The New School for Music. It’s not all that often that one gets a month off. It was a month that I viewed as time to leave behind the past seven years at The Center for Arts Education, while clearing my mind for the very new challenge of leading a music conservatory that is part of a fairly unorthodox university (The New School). It didn’t hurt that one of the founders of The New School, and father of its initial educational design was none other than John Dewey.
Alliance for Justice Releases Guide to Laws and Regulations for Online Advocacy
Posted on by Steve

Alliance for Justice has released Influencing Public Policy in the Digital Age: The Law of Online Lobbying and Election-related Activities. This publication was created to address the many questions nonprofit organizations have about advocacy in the new environment of the Internet and social media. It aims to help ensure that nonprofit advocates stay within the law and to demonstrate that robust participation in our nation's democratic process is not just possible, but actually enhanced by these new technologies.

22 New MacArthur Fellows Announced
Posted on by Steve

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today named 22 new MacArthur Fellows for 2011. Working across a broad spectrum of endeavors, the Fellows include an architect, a sports medicine researcher, a cellist, a developmental biologist, a radio producer, a neuropathologist, a conservator, a poet, a technologist, and a public historian. All were selected for their creativity, originality, and potential to make important contributions in the future.