The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts will host a virtual press conference on Thursday, April 19, 2012 to announce and discuss the three winning projects of the Knight/NEA Community Arts Journalism Challenge. The winners will each receive $80,000 to implement their ideas for new arts journalism models that inform and engage communities in the arts.
Steve's Blog
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Today, The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation announced the first class of recipients in the Duke Performing Artists Initiative. The initiative was announced last fall when the foundation allocated $50 million additional dollars to performing arts funding. From Ben Cameron, director of the Arts Program at Duke:
The Doris Duke Artist Awards recognize artists who have produced a significant body of work within the past decade—work that has already been supported and recognized by national citations, awards, prizes and/or grants, including at least one grant supported entirely or in part by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
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From Alex Aldrich, executive director for the Vermont Arts Council:
A recent post by Brooklyn Philharmonic CEO Richard Dare set the nonprofit arts world all abuzz. It gave a lot of statistics about the number of orchestras that are failing and the general fragility of the non-profit art sector—in short, the kind of alarm-ringing I, for one, have heard since the early 1970s when I began my career in the arts.
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From Bob Booker, executive director of the Arizona Arts Commission:
On Tuesday, April 17, 2012, Governor Jan Brewer signed HB2265 into law, reauthorizing the Arizona Commission on the Arts for 10 years.
HB2265’s success is attributable to a monumental statewide effort: a yearlong collaboration between artists, arts educators, administrators, board members, advocates and bipartisan elected officials.
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Here is some freshly posted video of the early part of Alec Baldwin’s presentation of the 2012 Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts & Public Policy given on April 16 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC:
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From Barry Hessenius at Barry's Blog:
It's been a decade or more since our sector embarked on a sea change in our attempt to better position the arts in the public discourse by embracing the wider concept of "creativity". The tipping point was probably Richard Florida's publication of The Rise of the Creative Class. We rushed to embrace the idea that creativity was the new currency of an information world—an asset that was, and would continue to be, critically essential to growing economies in an increasingly competitive marketplace, and that the arts were at the core of creativity. We did this I think in part because we saw it as a way to expand the appreciation for the value of the arts.
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Recognizing the transparency is a core value in the digital age, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced today it will require journalism and media grantees to disclose the identities and amounts contributed by major donors.
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Todd London assays the Mike Daisey issue at HowlRound:
That’s the patho-tragedy of Daisey. He couldn’t get out of his own way. He couldn’t walk away from himself the way those marketing and artistic director types eventually walked away from him. He knew hard news was the way to go, but he couldn’t turn off that playwright voice, saying, “Dramatize more, Mike! Make it more personal-like!” He was, in the end, Mike Daisey, subjective man. Subjective Daisey made the best theater of the year—even if it was on the radio—the theater of his own unraveling. Could his play of (sort of) facts have been as heart-stopping as it was to hear him lying and covering and hemming and hawing and justifying and falsely testifying (pause) (silence) (way more silence) (Beckett half-smiles approvingly; Pinter smirks)?
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From David Beem at Huffington Post:
Sometimes politics between management and players derail contract negotiations, as they have recently in Louisville. In comes the musicians' union, the AFM. And, against the backdrop of our national debate on unions, many in the community will naturally assume the musicians are gaming their employers. Discussion of how the arts requires “your help” will fall on deaf ears as much of the public shrugs their shoulders and puzzles over why they're asked to “give handouts.” They'll clear their throats and delicately suggest to the lot of lazy beggars that they should “get a real job.”
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From Simone Joyaux at Nonprofit Quarterly:
Let me tell you a secret: I don’t care if the donor gives a gift to my organization or to another organization. It’s all philanthropy. And philanthropy is about the donor. Philanthropy is bigger than any single organization. I believe “a rising tide raises all boats.” I believe that relationships are an end in and of themselves, not merely a strategy to secure gifts of time, advice and money. So here’s a wild suggestion. How about this threefold role for a fundraiser