GIA Blog

Arts World Draws Boston Hopefuls’ Careful Attention
Posted on by Steve

From Stephanie Ebbert, for The Boston Globe:

Boston’s power constituencies typically hail from the fields of construction and real estate, firefighting, and law. Poets and painters do not usually register as table-thumping political forces with which to be reckoned. But the first wide-open mayor’s race in three decades has motivated Boston’s arts community to form a political movement unlike any in recent memory.
2013 Conference for Community Arts Education
Posted on by Steve

The National Guild for Community Arts Education is presenting its 2013 Conference for Community Arts Education in Chicago, October 30 through November 2. It will bring together more than 500 arts education leaders from 350+ organizations and feature nationally renowned speakers and dozens of professional development and networking opportunities designed to help you increase participation and impact, raise more money, sustain and grow key programs, and advocate for equitable access to arts education. Early registration rates end on Thursday, September 19.

What’s Art Got to Do With It?
Posted on by Steve

Grantmakers In Aging CEO, John Feather, PhD, posts to Huffington Post:

To paraphrase rock and R&B legend Tina Turner (an artist who will turn 74 this fall), “what’s art got to do with it?” (“It” refers here to aging.) This question arose after I attended a conference on aging, health, and the arts and was sharing my excitement with some colleagues in the aging services field. After listening politely for a while, one of them finally blurted out what the others may also have been thinking: “What’s art got to do with aging?”
APAP Conference Wants Student Volunteers
Posted on by Steve

The Association of Performing Arts Presenters is looking for student volunteers for its annual conference, happening next in New York City, January 10-14:

Every year, APAP is pleased to extend a special invitation to full-time students (undergraduate and graduate) interested in attending the APAP|NYC conference. Qualified students are asked to volunteer at the conference 20 hours in any combination of shifts before or during the five days of the conference.
Thinking About Nonprofit Evaluation as Affected by Time
Posted on by Steve

From Paul T. Hogan, writing for Nonprofit Quarterly:

Two critical factors seriously limit our ability to measure “impact and outcomes.” One is time. Change takes a very long time to achieve, especially in the behavior of humans, and measuring what happens to people within a 12- or 24-month period based on an intermittent (at best) intervention is not likely to reflect true or lasting change.
From Artist to Enterprise: Organizational Structures for Artists
Posted on by Steve

Raya Sehgal covers the SOCAP13 conference for Creative Capital’s blog The Lab:

The idea of artists structuring their practice as an organization or enterprise was explored in a series of Focus Sessions at the recent Creative Capital Artist Retreat. Organized with independent arts consultant Laura Callanan, the “Artist to Enterprise” series included sessions on creative entrepreneurship, structures for artist-run organizations and the importance of protecting intellectual property.
September Member Spotlight on The New York Community Trust
Posted on by Abigail

During the month of September, GIA's photo banner features grantees of GIA member The New York Community Trust. Founded in 1924, the Trust supports the vitality and security of New York City through grants in a wide range of program areas, including community development, health, education, and human justice. Below, in their own words, Trust staff outline their arts and culture funding program:

Artists and their institutions make New York unique—and add thousands of jobs and billions in revenue. The New York Community Trust, the City’s community foundation, is dedicated to making this sector even stronger.

‘Strategic Philanthropy’ Shifts Too Much Power to Donors
Posted on by Steve

From Pablo Eisenberg, writing for The Chronicle of Philanthropy:

The debate over whether “strategic philanthropy” is a good idea was ignited again this month when the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation — a key pioneer and promoter of the approach — invited William Schambra, head of the Hudson Institute’s philanthropy center, to visit the fund and give an unvarnished view of whether it works.

Mr. Schambra, who is a Chronicle columnist, is not a fan. But the debate on nonprofit blogs and elsewhere that ensued after his remarks were published by Nonprofit Quarterly fails to grapple with the real issues raised by strategic philanthropy: It marks a fundamental shift in control and power by donors to call all the shots and exclude nonprofits with great new ideas.

NEA Webinar: Building Collective Impact Initiatives
Posted on by Steve

The National Endowment for the Arts will host a public webinar on how to begin and build collective impact initiatives on Wednesday, September 11, 2013, at 3:00 p.m. EDT. NEA Arts Education Director Ayanna Hudson will be joined in the conversation by two leaders in the field: Giselle “Gigi” Antoni, president/CEO of Big Thought in Dallas, Texas, and Denise Grande, director of Los Angeles County’s Arts for All initiative. Presentations will be followed by a Q&A discussion.

MacArthur Fellows Program Increases Stipend to $625k
Posted on by Steve

The MacArthur Foundation has released its latest review of the Fellows Program that includes a decision to increase the no-strings-attached stipend from $500,000 to $625,000, beginning with the next class of Fellows scheduled to be announced on September 25.