GIA Blog

In data, "many untold stories and futures are nestled between rows, columns, formulas, and colors on a spreadsheet," writes in a recent post Adriana Gallego, chief operating officer of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC). In this piece she says how patterns remind her of how impactful Latine communities are.

“Philanthropy hasn’t done a lot for poetry,” said Elizabeth Alexander, poet and president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to The New York Times. Her words are a strong reminder of how underfunded is poetry. But this week, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced that it awarded $2.2 million to the Academy of American Poets.

Starting as a three-year pilot program and with partners in Australia, Canada, and the US, the Global First Nations Performance Network was recently launched during the First Nations Dialogues Lenapehoking/New York, a series of events that took place January 5-12 highlighting Indigenous performers.

The Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, submitted last week a 2019-20 budget proposal to the Legislature that includes an ongoing $10 million increased general fund allocation for the California Arts Council, California's state arts agency.

Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation, greeted the new year with a letter in which he reflects on the foundation’s hopes for its grantees, the communities it impacts, and the world. We know that the communities most proximate to the problems possess unique insight into the solutions. That is why, in everything we do, … Continue reading A Vision of Hope for Philanthropy in 2019 →

Calling out equity explicitly, the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) became the first city department to officially adopt a racial equity statement and plan following a unanimous vote this week by its board, reported KQED.

A white paper released by Kresge Foundation explores creative placemaking initiatives and the assessment of community development strategies. The latest white paper on creative placemaking, penned by Maria Rosario Jackson, makes the case on how the field could benefit from a more nuanced understanding of the roots of urban inequality, and improved ways of tracking change in communities.

More community college students in the Northeast Ohio region will have a path to complete a bachelor's degree at Case Western Reserve University or an associate’s degree at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), thanks to a $2 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, reported Crain's Cleveland.

Mimi Levitt, a respected patron of the arts and historic conservation, died on January 6 of natural causes at her home in New York. Levitt believed in the arts as a source for positive social change and left a lasting legacy of generosity and service to the causes she supported, informed the Levitt Foundation. She was 97.

"We’re creative, we’re affordable, and you can help us stay that way." That is Des Moines' pitch to artists as Iowa's capital grows, according to an article in City Lab.