GIA Blog

Tax Reform Lessons Learned From State Experiments
Posted on by Steve

From Tim Delaney and Lisa Maruyama at Huffington Post:

As Congress begins to dive deeper into comprehensive tax reform, much depends on unproven projections and economic theories. Americans would be served better if Congress instead considered the real world lessons that states have learned by experimenting with limits on charitable tax deductions: local communities lose far more than governments gain.
Everyone is a Lot of People
Posted on by Tommer

Some timely thinking on the arts, populism, and equity by Ian David Moss on Createquity.

Getting Creative With the G.D.P.
Posted on by Steve

From Jeff Sommer, writing for The New York Times:

We have undervalued creativity and research. And despite the hoopla whenever Apple or Google releases a new product, we haven’t grasped the full significance of innovation.

That critique wouldn’t be surprising if it came from an underappreciated artist, scientist or technologist. But it’s being made in what may seem an unexpected quarter: the offices of the federal government. It’s the verdict of the experts who measure the American economy.

Obscure California Law Requires all Students be Taught Arts
Posted on by Steve

From Mary Plummer, scpr.org:

As budgets worsened over the past several years, schools throughout California cut where they could, slashing arts budgets so deeply some students have been left with no arts education at all.

Arts educator Carl Schafer of Upland, has been on a campaign to increase that instruction for a year. And in his effort, he found a line in the California education code that shocked him: the state requires arts to be taught to California students.

In Response to The Charitable-Industrial Complex
Posted on by Steve

James V. Toscano responds to the Peter Buffett editorial on the blog The Good Counsel:

Let’s establish some social wealth incubators, capitalize and staff them, open doors, do the due diligence necessary within the risk environment and welcome all comers.
The Charitable-Industrial Complex
Posted on by Steve

Peter Buffett pens this editorial for The New York Times:

I HAD spent much of my life writing music for commercials, film and television and knew little about the world of philanthropy as practiced by the very wealthy until what I call the big bang happened in 2006. That year, my father, Warren Buffett, made good on his commitment to give nearly all of his accumulated wealth back to society. In addition to making several large donations, he added generously to the three foundations that my parents had created years earlier, one for each of their children to run.
Darren Walker Named New President of Ford Foundation
Posted on by Tommer

On Thursday, Darren Walker, 53, will take the next step in a career that has taken him from Harlem to world-famous foundations five and a half miles away in Midtown Manhattan. He is to be named president of the Ford Foundation, the nation’s second-largest philanthropic organization.

More on the NEA Budget Process
Posted on by Tommer

Here's a concise description of how the budget process plays out by Andrew Finch, director of policy for the Association of Art Museum Directors, posted on CultureGrrl.

2014 Budget Plan Reduces NEA funds by 49%
Posted on by Tommer
The bill includes $75 million for each for the NEA and NEH, which is a reduction of $71 million (49%) per endowment compared to the fiscal year 2013 enacted level.

We Might Be Right: A Libertarian Voice in the Theater
Posted on by Steve

From Caleb Winebrenner, writing for Howl Round:

Augusto Boal says in The Rainbow of Desire that theater is an inherently human vocation. It’s something we all are, but something “some of us also do.” What I find so compelling about this distinction is Boal’s emphasis on what theater can make possible for an individual person. Theater is like a mirror, it’s dichotomizing. We can act as ourself, and we can see ourselves acting. We can have past, present, and even future versions of ourselves on stage—and reflect on what this means. As someone who also does theater, this also means that I’m not just focused on what theater can be for me—asserting my own individual rights, exercising my freedoms of speech and assembly—but what it can be for other people.