1. GIA Blog
  2. Steve's Blog

Steve's Blog

Diversity Focus Brings Opportunities, Challenges to Canada Council for the Arts
Posted on by Steve

From J. Kelly Nestruck, writing for The Globe and Mail:

The Canada Council for the Arts is getting a new funding model in April of 2017 — a total rethink of the Ottawa-based granting council that reduces its number of programs from 148 to a streamlined six. As details of this shift have started to emerge in recent weeks, however, the most striking change may be the direct tying of diversity to funding for large arts organizations for the first time since the Canada Council was established in 1957. It’s not just the diversity of art and artists that will come under scrutiny in the future at institutions with revenue of more than $2-million.
Oregonians Donate Record $4.56 Million to Culture
Posted on by Steve

From Tom Mayhall Rastrelli, writing for the Statesman Journal:

Oregonians donated a record $4.56 million to the Oregon Cultural Trust in 2015. This is a 5.4 percent increase from the $4.331 million raised in 2014 and the largest annual increase in giving since the Great Recession. “This is a powerful vote of support for culture,” Brian Rogers, the trust’s executive director, said. “Every donation we receive is an Oregonian saying ‘Culture is important.’” The trust will distribute up to 60 percent of the donations by way of grants to more than 1,400 of Oregon’s cultural nonprofits. The remaining 40 percent will be placed in a fund currently valued at just more than $26 million. Before the passage of Senate Bill 441 in 2015, the trust could only distribute up to 42 percent of the funds raised.
Arts, Cultural Production Contributed $704 Billion to the US Economy in 2013
Posted on by Steve

From the National Endowment for the Arts:

Today’s creative economy gets a big boost from the arts, according to new data from the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The latest figures cover 1998 to 2013 and they spotlight fast-growing arts industries, export trends, employment figures, consumer data, and more. In 2013, arts and cultural production contributed $704.2 billion to the U.S. economy, a 32.5 percent increase since 1998. Another key finding is that consumer spending on the performing arts grew 10 percent annually over the 15-year period. The Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (ACPSA) is the first federal effort to provide in-depth analysis of the arts and cultural sector's contributions to the economy.
AEFI Accepting Applications for Seminar on Strategy for New Artist-Endowed Foundation Leaders.
Posted on by Steve

The Aspen Institute Artist-Endowed Foundations Initiative (AEFI) has announced the launch of a professional development program, the Seminar on Strategy for New Artist-Endowed Foundation Leaders that responds to the demand for professional development opportunities among new leaders entering this growing field. The 2016 Seminar will take place the week of June 6–10 in New York City.

New Directions for Barr’s Arts & Creativity Program
Posted on by Steve

From E. San San Wong, Senior Program Officer at the Barr Foundation:

Three years ago, during the Boston mayoral race, artists, arts organizations, and engaged allies mobilized, lifted their voices, and called for greater support for the creative sector. This set the stage for Mayor Walsh to appoint Boston’s first cabinet-level arts chief in decades and to invite thousands of Bostonians to chart an inspirational course for their city through Boston Creates. Additionally, over these years, through the Barr-Klarman Arts Capacity Building Initiative, a cohort of arts and culture organizations have grown stronger and better capitalized to take artistic and organizational risks.
Creativz.us Presents Online Conversation For What Artists Need
Posted on by Steve

Billed as an open conversation as opposed to a presentation of findings or the release of a report (that will be coming in June 2016) CREATIVZ.US asks what artists in the United States need to sustain and strengthen their careers. The project is managed as a partnership by the Center for Cultural Innovation and the National Endowment for the Arts Creativity Connects Initiative, with Helicon Collaborative providing research, and with support from Surdna Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The goal now for CREATIVZ.US is to get broad input from as many artists and artist support providers as is possible. You can see the conversation happening at CREATIVZ.US.

New from the GIA Reader: The Time Has Come for a National Field of Teaching Artistry
Posted on by Steve

In an article from the latest issue of GIA Reader, Eric Booth, winner of the 2015 Americans for the Arts Education Leadership Award, makes the case for funders to support the work of the teaching artist in The Time Has Come for a National Field of Teaching Artistry.

How the Nonprofit Arts Sector Has Evolved since the Great Recession
Posted on by Steve

From Eileen Cunniffe and Julie Hawkins, writing for Nonprofit Quarterly:

There is ample evidence to demonstrate that nonprofit arts and culture organizations in the United States are rebounding from the Great Recession — albeit more slowly than other parts of the nonprofit sector. The 2014 National Arts Index compiled by Americans for the Arts notes that while the overall economic recovery began in 2009, it did not positively affect the arts until 2012. A report from the Urban Institute in 2014 showed that more arts, culture, and humanities nonprofits took the largest hit — proportionately — on revenue during the recession, and also had the largest decrease in total numbers of organizations of any of the subsectors studied.
Creating a Sharing Economy that Actually Shares
Posted on by Steve

From Laura Zabel, writing for Stanford Social Innovation Review:

Springboard for the Arts, the nonprofit where I work, just gave away its oldest program and most reliable earned income stream. We took the curriculum from our artist-entrepreneur training course, packaged it into a free toolkit, and we’re giving it to anyone who wants to start and customize their own program. We did it to increase our impact. A community and economic development organization run by and for artists, our mission is to help artists make a living and a life, and to help communities connect to the creative power of artists.
New Chief Cultural Officer Talks Philadelphia’s Creative Future
Posted on by Steve

From Brandon Baker, writing for Philly Voice:

With a new mayoral administration comes a new Chief Cultural Officer in the form of Kelly Lee, a 49-year-old Germantown native who previously served as CEO of now-defunct Innovation Philadelphia, communications director for the Pennsylvania Convention Center and director of economic development for PECO. Lee succeeds Helen Haynes in the position and joins an office that is essentially still in its infancy, re-established by Mayor Michael Nutter in 2008. Its official role is to promote the city’s cultural scene to the world, develop it as an economic engine, provide resources to artists and provide access to the greatest number of Philadelphians possible — though, its actual function is still in flux.