Steve's Blog

From Graham Bowley and Patricia Cohen, writing for the New York Times:

EmcArts, the social enterprise for learning and innovation in the arts, is taking proposals for Innovation Lab, their 16-month-long immersion programs for U.S.-based arts and arts service organizations seeking to uncover adaptive strategies and responses to their most complex challenges. The program was launched in 2008 and will deliver two more rounds of the program to eight participating organizations from across the country in 2014 and 2015. These new rounds are funded by a $1.58 million grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Four organizations from across the country will be selected for each of these two rounds.

New York City Mayor de Blasio today appointed Tom Finkelpearl as Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs. A sculptor by training, he most recently served as executive director of the Queens Museum, where he completed a major expansion that doubled the size of the museum. Finkelpearl began his career in arts management at Long Island City’s PS 1 Contemporary Art Center in 1982, which he joined as a public affairs officer, and then went on to organize a number of major exhibitions. In 1990, he joined the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs as Director of the Percent for Art Program, overseeing more than 100 public art projects across all five boroughs.

The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies has announced that CEO Jonathan Katz intends to retire late in 2014. Katz has served 29 years at the helm of NASAA. “It has been my great privilege to serve as your CEO during the last three decades,” Katz said. “So much so that I've effortlessly postponed putting more energy into what has now become a demanding writing agenda. Also, my enjoyment of leadership development and strategic planning has never stopped growing. I'd like to invest more time and creativity in those pursuits in the future.”

From Jillian Steinhauer, writing for Hyperallergic:

The economic recovery is not offering signs of relief for the nonprofit sector, and many organizations are now looking to new models of funding, according the results of the Nonprofit Finance Fund’s 2014 State of the Nonprofit Sector Survey. Leaders from more than 5,000 nonprofits nationwide participated in this sixth annual survey. Many reported daunting financial situations, and said they are looking at new ways to secure the future of their organizations for the benefit of the people they serve.

Creative Capital has announced a gift of $1 million from the estate of photographer Theo Westenberger. The gift will be used to establish Theo Westenberger Awards for Creative Capital artists; a loan fund for Creative Capital alumni in literature, film/video, visual arts, and emerging fields. A new program in estate planning, initially designed for Creative Capital artists, will eventually be made available to all artists funded through Creative Capital’s ancillary programs, as well as participants in Creative Capital’s Professional Development Program for artists.

From Woods Bowman, writing for Nonprofit Quarterly:

For the month of April, our photo banner will feature work from the Sustainable Arts Foundation. This foundation takes on the mission of supporting artists and writers with children. Recognizing that immersion into one’s art can be a real luxury in the context of a family, Sustainable Arts Foundation seeks to help parents continue their creative lives.

The Sustainable Arts Foundation has just completed year two of its pilot residency grant program. This program was designed to challenge artist residencies to make their opportunities more available to parent artists and writers. It is particularly impressed by the range of organizations in this second round: It has offered grants to 16 residency programs in 12 different states supporting a wide range of disciplines in both rural and urban environments.

Keeping My Day Job: Identifying U.S. Workers Who Have Dual Careers As Artists is the third installment in the National Endowment for the Arts’ Arts Data Profiles, an online resource offering facts and figures from large, national datasets about the arts, along with instructions for their use. Arts Data Profile #3 reports on employment statistics for U.S. workers who name “artist” as their primary or secondary job.