GIA Blog

"Here we go again. It’s a year later and we’re back where we started," said author and Founding Director of Women of Color in the Arts Kaisha Johnson. "It’s so disheartening, although not surprising, to see historically and predominantly white arts organizations and cultural institutions pulling out all the stops (and red flags) to acknowledge Juneteenth this year. After all the hollow statements of solidarity — which I expressed as extremely problematic in a Medium article last year, I find myself in the same space — giving a metaphorical and literal side eye to our sector."

"The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention at the U.S. Department of Justice released new funds to develop, enhance or expand art programs for justice-involved youth. The purpose of Arts Programs for Justice-Involved Youth is to support collaborations between arts-based organizations and juvenile justice systems that focus on current and previous justice-involved youth, including Tribal and Indigenous youth, to reduce juvenile delinquency, recidivism, and/or other problem and high-risk behaviors."

"It has now been more than two years since George Floyd’s murder sparked the historic 2020 summer uprisings for racial justice. Since then, the debate about race in the US has remained center stage. Racial justice movement leaders and organizers continue to demand a reckoning with the nation’s history of racial exclusion and oppression. At the same time, a white nationalist, anti-democratic, and increasingly violent faction has gained prominence," said Nonprofit Quarterly author Kyle Strickland. "A central question is how to advance racial and economic justice while US democracy continues to backslide. Significant challenges remain: public opinion on issues of race continues to waver amid weaponized racist backlash; Republican-led state legislatures are passing sweeping voter suppression measures; and a reactionary Supreme Court is rolling back civil rights and freedoms. Meanwhile, Democrats are divided over strategy, vision, and goals."

From Culture Track: "Untapped Opportunity: Older Americans & the Arts aims to shed light on older generations’ distinct preferences and behaviors to provide relevant insights for cultural engagement. Our findings are focused on the U.S. population aged 55 and over, who were surveyed as part of our Culture + Community in a Time of Transformation national survey, fielded from April 5 to April 30, 2021."

From author Vu for Nonprofit AF: "Justice has been dealt a significant blow. Many of us are distraught, wondering how we can continue when an unceasing barrage of death and violence continues raining down on our communities day after day. However, many of us are more pissed off than anything. We’re going to keep fighting."

"The anemic California polling numbers for this past primary election (12 percent of the population voted) don’t bode well for the fall, but there is a long-sought arts initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot," said author Michael Zwiebach for Classical Voice. "The California Art and Music K-12 Education Funding Initiative has qualified for the general election; as the name states, it’s meant to bolster school arts programs."

"Google's first-ever Image Equity Fellowship is a 6-month, application-based Fellowship awarded to 20 early-career image-based creators of color in the US. Selected Fellows will receive $20,000 in unrestricted funds to create an image-based project that explores and uplifts community(ies) of color with care and nuance."

From TED: "Famed for enormous black-and-white portraits that are pasted on surfaces ranging from the Louvre to the US-Mexico border wall, multimedia artist JR continues to tackle ambitious projects. In this powerfully moving talk, he shares how he made a giant mural on the courtyard floor of a maximum-security prison -- with the help of guards and prisoners alike -- and ended up with much more than a compelling image."

"We are at a historic crossroads — a social, environmental and economic reckoning hastened by COVID-19 and a global movement for racial equity. As arts and culture funders, we’ve seen how the landscape is shifting," said co-authors Rocío Aranda-Alvarado and Lane Harwell. "Artists and storytellers are regrounding and reimagining themselves, reshaping arts infrastructure and systems that have never been equitable or sustainable, and working to realize the narrative possibilities to come."

From the Mellon Foundation, "How can the arts unify racially divided communities? Finding answers to that question was central to the founding mission of Asian Arts Initiative (AAI), a multidisciplinary arts center in Philadelphia that supports Asian American creatives and cultivates meaningful ways for them to connect with local communities through gallery exhibitions, performances, workshops, and other programming with a social purpose."