GIA Blog

For me the key of the speech by Ravitch appears in a series of the basic services that every child needs, that we could afford were the system not tilted so heavily towards the 1%, were we not wasting trillions in the military industrial complex, were we not so committed to bailing out the financial sector at the expense of the rest of us.

In the world of public policy, ideas are a dime a dozen. From issues ranging from education to trade issues, everyone has their opinion about the best course of action the government should take. What’s often missing, however, are new and exciting ways to present these ideas, taking formally bland issues and finding new ways to solve them.

This is where the arts community comes in.

It isn't helpful to characterize this in any pejorative sense as evil or conspiratorial — rather it is really just the natural tendency to support one's “own” — the familiar, that with which one grew up. And that legacy of how things are done favors what it has always favor — the larger Euro-centric cultural institutions. The bottom line is this: we are not likely to change private decision-making as the same governs equity considerations until we change the culture of leadership currently (still) existent in the Board rooms where the decisions about who-gets-how-much-are made.

Most of the GIA bloggers make modest suggestions as to how funders can channel more resources to the artists and organizations whose social and cultural contributions are now so disproportionately underfunded. Several point to their own organizations’ or allies’ work as models. Understandably, most position themselves as ahead of the curve, already taking steps to increase equity.

So far, at least, there are few comments (the online forum ends on 16 December, so there’s still time). My hunch is that is because there aren’t so many entry points in most of the posts: what is to be debated in a group of thoughtful funders and researchers mostly affirming what they already know?

If you don't cross every t and dot every i, you can kiss your cultural Legacy Amendment money goodbye.

More than a dozen Twin Cities groups that received Legacy Amendment-funded grants through the Minnesota State Arts Board in past years were stunned this year to find their applications rejected on what some say are technicalities.

Last month, the Rockefeller Foundation, in partnership with Resource Alliance and the Institute for Development Studies, convened a major summit in Bellagio, Italy, on the future of philanthropy and development in the pursuit of well-being. The summit—the culmination of a process involving regional consultations around the globe, the commissioning of papers on relevant topics, and more—generated key messages for institutions and individuals working in, and with, the development and philanthropy sectors.

Now, these individuals and others in the field of global grantmaking have a chance to weigh in and respond to those messages by joining the Council on Foundations, the Rockefeller Foundation, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy during a special Twitter Chat, December 12, 1–2 p.m. ET, using the hashtag #PhilChat.