GIA Blog

New Posts on Equity Forum
Posted on by Steve

On Tuesday, Grantmakers in the Arts launched the online Forum on Equity in Arts Funding. The forum will include posts from a great list of thought leaders and launched with entries from F. Javier Torres of the Boston Foundation, MK Wegman from National Performance Network, Jesse Rosen from the League of American Orchestras, and Aaron Dorfman from National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

Today, the forum adds six new entries to the forum:

  • Marta Moreno Vega, president and founder, The Carribean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute; adjunct professor, arts and public policy, Tisch School for the Arts, New York University
  • Judi Jennings, executive director, Kentucky Foundation for Women
  • Justin Laing, program officer, Arts & Culture Program, The Heinz Endowments
  • Barbara Schaffer Bacon, co-director, Animating Democracy, Americans for the Arts
  • Maria Rosario Jackson, senior research associate, Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center, Urban Institute
  • Holly Sidford, president, Helicon Collaborative

Visit the Forum today and join the discussion

What If?
Posted on by giarts-ts-admin

by Holly Sidford (bio), president, Helicon Collaborative NCRP commissioned Fusing Art, Culture and Social Change to illuminate distribution patterns in foundation funding for arts and culture, and to encourage culture funders to allocate more of their resources toward directly benefitting … Continue reading →

Cultural Kitchens: Nurturing organic creative expression
Posted on by giarts-ts-admin

by Maria Rosario Jackson (bio), senior research associate, Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center, Urban Institute In recent conferences that have dealt with the topic of equity like this year’s Grantmakers in the Arts Conference and the PolicyLink Equity Summit … Continue reading →

Rewarding Sustained Attention
Posted on by giarts-ts-admin

by Barbara Schaffer Bacon (bio), co-director, Animating Democracy, Americans for the Arts “Great art rewards sustained attention.” This simple theory comes from philosopher Marcia Muelder Eaton, professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota. In my personal experience, it is true. … Continue reading →

When Is It Actually Arts and Culture?
Posted on by giarts-ts-admin

by Justin Laing (bio), program officer, Arts & Culture Program, The Heinz Endowments For me, one of the most useful elements of NCRP’s Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change was the section titled “A Funding Typology and Pathways to Change” … Continue reading →

Who is Being Marginalized and Why?
Posted on by giarts-ts-admin

by Judi Jennings (bio), executive director, Kentucky Foundation for Women Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change is a wake up call to our field. The report shows that only 10% of grants of $10,000 or more given by private foundations … Continue reading →

So What’s New?
Posted on by giarts-ts-admin

by Marta Moreno Vega (bio), president and founder, The Carribean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute; adjunct professor, arts and public policy, Tisch School for the Arts, New York University Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change: High Impact Strategies for Philanthropy … Continue reading →

All flexible funding is not created equal: GOS, capacity building grants and change capital
Posted on by Steve

From the Nonprofit Finance Fund's Social Currency blog, Rebecca Thomas and Rodney Christopher examine change capital:

Today, with the help of a particular kind of money--Change Capital--Alvin Ailey American Dance Foundation is attracting new revenue by building a technology platform and internal capabilities that maximize opportunities for patron and audience engagement. Merce Cunningham Dance Foundation is raising money upfront to wind down its operations in a graceful way and leave a meaningful legacy.

Utterly Clueless: Cultural Policy San Francisco Style
Posted on by Steve

Arlene Goldbard's comprehensive report on the situation facing the San Francisco Arts Commission's Cultural Equity Grants (CEG) program:

The city creates a special initiative to respond to residents’ deep desire for cultural equity, one small step toward equalizing access to resources. It is housed at the Arts Commission, along with many other programs and initiatives. This initiative supports artists and groups—mostly grounded in communities of color or other marginalized categories—who have not been able to obtain meaningful resources from mainstream sources. As the story unfolds, the host organism falls into disarray, rotting from the head. Supposedly objective (i.e., astoundingly under-informed and therefore unprepared) auditors are summoned to diagnose and recommend, but they are given a brief that covers only a few questions. Their recommendations are mostlly administrative and general, but they single out the special initiative for significant cuts.

There's A Glitch in the Matrix
Posted on by Janet

Equity is at the core of this moment in our country's history.  Occupy America continues to remind us of the inequities that have become the reality of the American dream.  Once held in esteem because it was within reach of all Americans, the dream is fading in a country where poverty continues to increase, jobs are at a premium and politicians don’t realize their “team” is not one party but an entire country, and it’s losing.