GIA Blog

How Are Artists Getting Paid?
Posted on by Steve

From Alexis Clements, at Hyperallergic:

Art and labor is a big topic today, at least among artists. Specifically, it has become ever more obvious that virtually none of the money that flows into major arts institutions, companies that distribute creative content, and art markets actually reaches the artists who generate the work. And people are getting vocal about it.
Detroit’s Creditors Eye Its Art Collection
Posted on by Steve

We posted two months ago about the director of the Detroit Institute of the Arts’ response to the city's emergency manager showing interest in selling parts of the Institute’s Art collection to help get Detroit out of debt. Last week Detroit filed for bankruptcy, and the city’s art collection is squarely in the sights of creditors.

Unlike most art museums around the country, which are owned by nonprofit corporations that hold a collection in trust for citizens, the institute is owned by Detroit, as is much of its collection — which is not particularly deep but includes gems by artists like Bruegel, Caravaggio, Rembrandt and van Gogh. It is considered among the top 10 encyclopedic museums in the country.
Henry Luce Foundation Grants American Folk Art Museum $1.6M
Posted on by Steve

Last month, the Henry Luce Foundation, in conjunction with its 75th anniversary initiative, awarded the American Folk Art Museum $1.6 million in funding for a national traveling exhibition of masterworks from the Museum’s collection. The exhibition, Self-Taught Genius: Treasures from the American Folk Art Museum, features more than 100 works of art that celebrate the singular power of folk art and art by the self-taught. The exhibition will showcase the Museum’s collection – examining “selftaught” as an enduring American art form with changing implications over three centuries.

Artists Health Insurance Survey Underway
Posted on by Steve

From now through August 31, 2013, Future of Music Coalition, Fractured Atlas and the Artists’ Health Insurance Resource Center are joining forces with artist service organizations across the country to take the pulse of the artist community regarding access to health insurance via an online survey.

Illinois Lt. Governor Receives Public Leadership in the Arts Award
Posted on by Steve

Americans for the Arts and the National Lieutenant Governors Association presented Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon with the Public Leadership in the Arts Award for State Arts Leadership, which honors a public official who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in the advancement of the arts at the state level.

Is Criticizing Private Foundations Anti-Capitalist (i.e., Marxist) or Pro-Capitalist?
Posted on by Steve

Former GIA Board member Angie Kim posts to her new blog, Private Foundations Plus:

There seems to be two kinds of treatment of people who express any kind of criticism of private foundations. One kind of reaction is to accept their criticism and laud the person for being an important voice in the field. These folks are perceived as being an intellectual scholar or enlightened leader: They are warmly invited to circulate among foundation board trustees and to speak at foundation-only conferences. Joel Fleishman (2009) falls into this camp as do many foundation CEOs and presidents who express self-critical opinions, such as “we need to do more” and “this is not our money.” When I consider why these folks are so well received within the private foundation community, it’s because they are moderate in their ideas of what foundations should be doing.
A Look Inside: How we Selected Grants for Arts’ Exploring Engagement Fund
Posted on by Steve

Rick Noguchi offers an explainer on the process that The James Irvine Foundation follows in grant selection for one arts program:

One of the common criticisms that foundations hear from grantseekers is that we aren’t always clear about how we make decisions about grants. It can be frustrating for a grant-seeking organization to try to understand why they did not receive a grant, while similar organizations did. Foundation funding can be a critical source of income, particularly in the arts, so it’s understandable that arts nonprofits want better insight into our decision-making processes. With that in mind, I would like to share some thoughts about grant decisions we made for one of our funds in the Arts Program here at Irvine, the Exploring Engagement Fund for Large Organizations (EEFLO).
Speak Your Piece: The Extractive Arts
Posted on by Steve

Scott E. Walters writes for the Daily Yonder:

Like clear-cutting a forest or blasting the top off of a mountain in order to send wood and coal to urban dwellers, the American arts system extracts artistic resources in the form of talented young people and tells them that the only place they can make a living in the arts is New York City. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this is a major lie. Let me use a statistic from my area of expertise, the theater, to make my point.
How America’s Biggest Companies Give
Posted on by Steve

The Chronicle of Philanthropy has a nice infograph to show how large companies gave in 2012, including their cash gifts, noncash giving, ways they encourage employee giving, and the causes they support. Follow links to a full report and updated information as well as a set of case studies on corporate giving.

Check out the interactive graph here.

Assembly Speaker John Perez boosts state arts funding by $2 million
Posted on by Steve

From Mike Boehm, for the Los Angeles Times:

California’s arts grant-making agency announced Monday that it will get $3 million this year from state coffers instead of the $1 million called for in the budget legislators passed in June, thanks to Assembly Speaker John Perez, who’s providing the extra money from discretionary funds under his control.