Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy has announced that Tamir Novotny has been selected as its new Executive Director, beginning Monday, November 16, 2015. Novotny has been an active member of EPIP since early 2013 and has served on the EPIP New York Steering Committee, and as Regional Coordinator for the Northeast chapters. He has contributed to EPIP’s national programming, including EPIP’s 2015 national conference and its Wednesday Webinar series. He joins EPIP after nine years at Living Cities, a philanthropic collaborative of 22 major foundations and financial institutions focused on improving the lives of low-income urban residents.
GIA Blog
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by Steve
Barry Hessennius puts a wrap on his reports from the GIA 2015 Conference, held in Los Angeles last week:
Too often people only have complaints against funders. I would like to thank them. I admire their tenacity, their positive attitudes and their creativity. And now that I have thanked them, I would like to encourage them to push the envelope more; to have a sense of urgency about changing the dynamic and move us quicker in the area of equity. It’s frustrating not to move quicker where the need is great. There is so much that might get done if society had the right priorities and we had the necessary tools and resources. But things are getting a little bit better all the time.
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by Barry Hessenius
Coming off last week’s GIA Conference I am left with several thoughts: 1. My respect for, and empathy with, the funding community continues to grow. These are smart, dedicated people who care deeply about the health of the fragile arts ecosystem, and are earnestly trying to figure out ways to address the big challenges the whole field faces.
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GIA 2015 Conference blogger Lara Davis shares her notes from Tuesday at the Los Angeles Conference:
Tuesday morning’s Idea Lab of artists was on point, my people. I was particularly struck by Rosten Woo, who in a nutshell, produces communication art. Putting “interpretation” at the center of his work, he creates things like aesthetically-designed and clearly legible pamphlets on zoning so that street vendors know their rights, and glossies that highlight art and cultural occurrences in neighborhoods that, “due to racism, or the mere fact it takes place in someone’s backyard,” are not recognized as cultural staple within a community. I’m a fan. crystal am nelson’s visual and spoken artwork was stunning, and affirming. It invokes “historical trauma combined with pleasure as complicity”, naming society’s collective involvement in the violence and de-humanization of the Black body. This is a mirror we need right now.
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by Lara Davis
Tuesday morning’s IDEA LAB of artists was on point, my people. I was particularly struck by Rosten Woo, who in a nutshell, produces communication art. Putting “interpretation” at the center of his work, he creates things like aesthetically-designed and clearly legible pamphlets on zoning so that street vendors know their rights, and glossies that highlight art and cultural occurrences in neighborhoods that, “due to racism, or the mere fact it takes place in someone’s backyard,” are not recognized as cultural staple within a community. I’m a fan.
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by Steve
The latest post from Barry Hessenius covers his notes from the second day of the Los Angeles Conference.
The major afternoon sessions were three hour offsite. I choose to attend the Digital Media for Arts Grantmakers session, focusing on the need for grantmakers to learn to deploy digital media to reach and engage audiences and to become fluent in digital capabilities and tools. Takeaways:
- Have an articulated game plan, informed by the organization’s overall vision strategy
- Build capabilities, don’t just do projects. Technology is not a project but a process
- Shake up the organization chart with an integration of digital competency positions, including training
- Put audiences first and be prepared for constant change.
- This is, of course, a big, complex area where many arts leaders feel lost and / or incompetent and there are numerous obstacles to embracing full digital knowledge. But as the generational shifts become more urgent, so too is the necessity of overcoming reticence and fears to understand the basics of IT and appreciate the rapidity of change as a constant.
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by Barry Hessenius
Two sessions today. Cultural Policy and Local Arts Agencies: At the Nexus of Cultural, Economic and Community Development — featuring the work of the Tucson Pima Arts Council (Roberto Bedoya — Director of Civic Engagement) — shifting policy from grant making to serving the community directly; the City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs (Kerry Adams Hapner, Director of Cultural Affairs, Deputy Director of Economic Development) — moving on the challenge of cities to develop talented workforce pools; and and the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture (Randy Engstrom, Director) — emphasizing arts education as a “Creative Advantage” program.
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Barry Hessenius checks in with his observations on the first day of the Los Angeles Conference:
The first day of any of our art conferences seem to always be the longest. Janet Brown opened the conference with the reminder that the three operating principles of GIA continue to be: Inclusiveness, Collaboration, and Curiosity. Recent GIA Conferences have featured Idea Lab — short Ted like presentations by a trio of different working artists. The first three were all excellent. The one that caught my attention was Yuval Sharon, founder and artistic director of The Industry, an L.A. based experimental opera company that produces performances that can only be categorized as way outside the box. He touted three
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GIA conference blogger Lara Davis checks in after her first day of the GIA 2015 Conference in Los Angeles:
Day 1 of the main conference has been pretty spectacular. The opening plenary inspired with three local artist presentations centering cultural organizing, innovation, and love. The sessions themselves were brilliant – a confluence of ideas and grappling with critical issues that the philanthropic community must consider, unpack and engage through action and accountability. In particular, the session on Cultural Equity and Public Funding framed the evolving work of funding agencies amidst changing demographics in the US. These changes reflect impacts on housing, law enforcement, education, and even electoral politics – all compounded by economic gaps impacting communities of color. This is an environment, which calls the field to task, to position arts and culture as a space of creativity and possibility through problem-solving, collaboration, and community leadership.
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by Barry Hessenius
The first day of any of our art conferences seem to always be the longest. Janet Brown opened the conference with the reminder that the three operating principles of GIA continue to be: Inclusiveness, Collaboration, and Curiosity. Recent GIA Conferences have featured IDEA LAB — short TED-like presentations by a trio of different working artists. And Monday’s IDEA LAB artists were all excellent. The one that caught my attention was Yuval Sharon, founder and artistic director of The Industry, an L.A. based experimental opera company that produces performances that can only be categorized as way outside the box.