GIA Blog

Urgent times call for urgent responses. The Covid-19 pandemic along with what many have called out as a "racism pandemic" led the Ford Foundation to announce it will spend beyond the 5% minimum required from their endowment during this unparalleled moment.

The Center for Cultural Power presented recently "NoGoingBack: A COVID-19 Cultural Strategy Activation Guide for Artists and Activists" to inspire creation and disruption in moments when "a global pandemic has magnified the flaws of our capitalist system, but, also, the power art and culture to uplift, disrupt and build community."

Three hundred African, Latine, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA) theatremakers signed a letter —accompanied by a petition—demanding that "the white American theatre recognize its legacy of white fragility and white supremacy," Playbill reported.

The recently launched Momentum Fund seeks to support nonprofit organizations managing active COVID-19 relief and recovery funds that are helping communities recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Nonprofit collaboration has become an increasingly important social change tool—one that is needed now more than ever to address the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and recession. But working with other organizations—whether in a loose affiliate network or movement, or in a more structured partnership or merger—requires a commensurate growth in collaboration capacity."

Yolanda F. Johnson, the first African American to serve as president of Women in Development, an organization that works to empower and support New York-area women in the development field, is launching Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy (WOC) to support her POC colleagues, according to Philanthropy Women.

"Philanthropy doesn’t stand still. Pressing issues and seismic political, economic, and technological shifts move us to regularly revisit and renew how we work."

For the month of June, GIA’s photo banner features work supported by the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.

The Seattle Office of Arts & Culture manages the city’s public art program, cultural partnerships grant programs, the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, and The Creative Advantage initiative “in the effort to foster a city driven by creativity that provides the opportunity for everyone to engage in diverse arts and cultural experiences.” In alignment with the City of Seattle’s Race and Social Justice Initiative, the office works to eliminate institutional racism in their programs, policies and practices.

The Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA) launched recently its latest publication SaludArte: Building Health Equity on the Bedrock of Traditional Arts and Culture.

Recent research from Echoing Green and Bridgespan discusses "the racial disparity in today’s funding environment and argues that population-level impact cannot happen without funding more leaders of color."