GIA Blog

The New York Community Trust has released a report on the work of its collaborative funding projects, highlighting initiatives to fund arts programs, support public schools, develop affordable housing, and others. Over nearly 40 years, The Trust has partnered with over 140 funders, distributing $119 million across 20 collaborative funds. The report discusses outcomes and lessons learned from these projects.

Kindle Project, an experimental philanthropy lab, has announced a new grantmaking program called Boomerang which aims to give artist grantees the ability to help shape the distribution of philanthropic dollars. The recipients of the organization’s upcoming Makers Muse Artist Awards will each be offered a Flow Fund to recommend be reallocated to an organization or project of the artists’ choosing. The project aims to embolden artists and discover new unusual projects, creators, and ideas by placing decision-making power in the hands of grantees.

The National Endowment for the Arts’ digital story series United States of Arts has been nominated for a 2016 Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Short Form Nonfiction or Reality Series category. A key feature of United States of Arts is the collection of more than 60 three-minute episodes highlighting the stories of arts and culture; one from every U.S. state, territory, and region, reflecting a diverse array of cultures, people, places, and ideas.

A new grant program of Theatre Communications Group assembles teams of three or more nonprofit organizations to design and implement audience engagement and community development strategies. Funded by the Doris Duke Chariatable Foundation, the inaugural Audience (R)Evolution Cohort Grants have been awarded to 9 projects representing 32 partnering organizations for a total of over $1.18 million. TCG will also provide additional general operating support equivalent to 30 percent of each award.

By Janet Brown, from her blog Better Together

In 1980, when I was living in New York City, I had a conversation with a man who at one time was general manager of Lincoln Center. We debated, rather heatedly, his premise that the National Endowment for the Arts should give money only to states that produce “good” art — in other words, New York. (He wasn’t sure other states should get any funding at all.) He believed the federal government should give funds to South Dakota, my home state, for what it does well — grow corn and beef. He believed the government should fund only what someone would decide was “good” art, and obviously, no “good” art came out of South Dakota. I was offended by that, and I can pinpoint that day as the beginning of my somewhat outspoken beliefs that all art has an element of excellence as long as it is authentic to a people and place. I delight in the fact that there are no rules of geography and environment in art making.

The Joyce Foundation has announced that Tracie D. Hall, currently deputy commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, has been appointed director of the foundation’s culture program. She will join Joyce in mid-November after readying Chicago’s Public Art Plan and Year of Public Art initiative for launch late this year and in early 2017.

Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation (MAAF) announced that executive director Alan W. Cooper will retire effective May 2017. As executive director of the foundation since 1994, Cooper has been responsible for all aspects of leadership and oversight leading to substantial growth in programs and services that have had extensive impact for both audiences and artists in the mid-Atlantic region and beyond.