GIA Blog

GIA member and California Humanities CEO Julie Fry recently penned an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle urging the importance of federal arts funding:

For the month of March, GIA’s photo banner features artists and work supported by the Oregon Community Foundation, established in 1973 as a permanent endowment for community improvement efforts throughout the state of Oregon. From founder William Swindells’ initial $63,000 contribution, OCF now has over $1.5 billion under management through 1,900 charitable funds that support the five key areas of arts and culture, health and well-being, livability, economic vitality, and education.

Grantmakers in the Arts is proud to release a literature review on the growing field of arts in medicine. The review outlines the various ways in which artists and healthcare institutions work together to support patient and community heath, the infrastructure that exists to support this work, and how funders can support further development of the field. This document was produced as support material for the GIA Funder Forum on Arts in Medicine, held in Orlando, Florida on February 24, 2017 and sponsored by the Barr Foundation.

Read the report.

Recent graduates with arts degrees have better career and entrepreneurial training than those who came before them, according to a report released by the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) at the Indiana University School of Education. The research, based on a survey of arts graduates, demonstrates that new approaches to arts education are helping prepare students for careers and give them tools they need to succeed.

The Ford Foundation has announced the election of Bryan Stevenson to serve as a member of its board of trustees. A renowned public interest lawyer, Stevenson is founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) in Montgomery, Alabama.

“Bryan is a courageous, transformational leader and a stalwart advocate for justice who has done an extraordinary amount to challenge the legacy of racial inequality in this country,” said Darren Walker, president of the Ford Foundation.

From The New York Times: The White House budget office has drafted a hit list of programs that President Trump could eliminate to trim domestic spending, including longstanding conservative targets like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Legal Services Corporation, Americorps, and the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities. Work on the first … Continue reading Federal Budget Office Memo Seeks Elimination of Nine Programs Including NEA, NEH, CPB →

From The New York Times:

From The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation:

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have launched a new partnership called Sound Health, designed to explore the connections between music, health, and wellness. Through this partnership, both institutions will create opportunities to further understand how music affects circuitry in the brain, explore the potential for music as therapy for neurological disorders, identify future research opportunities, and create public awareness about how the brain functions and interacts with music.

The early days of the Trump Administration and the 115th Congress have already begun to impact the education policy landscape. Alex Nock of Penn Hill Group has provided a summary update for Grantmakers in the Arts on current events that impact arts education and arts funding on a federal level. These events include the confirmation … Continue reading Federal Arts Education Update: DeVos, ESSA, and Arts Funding →