Arts Research

2008, 141 pages. Council on Foundations, 2121 Crystal Drive, Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22202 (703) 879-0600, www.cof.org

This robust report features a series of essays on aspects of rural philanthropy from a diverse range of perspectives. The conclusion, by Sherece Y. West, alone is worth the price of admission. The report concludes with a summary of funding recommendations from the Council on Foundations Conference on Philanthropy and Rural America: A 21st Century Agenda, held in August 2007 in Montana.

2007, 122 pages. RAND Corporation, 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202, (703) 413-1100, www.rand.org
PDF online: www.rand.org

In June 2007, the Broward Cultural Division and the local arts incubator, ArtServe, Inc., implemented the first "The Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute" (AEI) in South Florida. Presented on four consecutive Saturdays, the AEI offered eighteen classes during three full-day sessions and an extra half-day Business Plan Clinic on the final Saturday.

2007, 73 pages. The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, 5 Bennett Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, (617) 496-5675, www.ksghauser.harvard.edu

2007, 86 pages. The Center for Arts Education, 14 Penn Plaza, 225 West 34th Street, NY, NY 10122, www.cae-nyc.org

Crossing Borders and Boundaries was the theme of the GFE Conference in 2007, and shortly after the GFE and GIA conferences and the Arts and Education Weekend, I left for a trip to Asia including visits to Thailand, Cambodia, and Hong Kong. The GFE conference underscored the fact that one of the most important skills needed now is to be globally literate, which is pretty much being neglected in schools at the moment.

2007, 57 pages. The Boston Foundation, 75 Arlington St., Boston, MA, 02116, (617) 338-1700, www.tbf.org
PDF online: www.bostonindicators.org

According to some, "the word twain has its origin in the Old English twegen, meaning two. The phrase never the twain shall meet was used by Rudyard Kipling, in his Barrack-room ballads, 1892: 'Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.'" Kipling uses a colonial lens to bemoan the lack of commonality and accord between the British and the indigenous East Indian. Until my recent trip to New Mexico I often felt that same lack of accord between arts funders and education funders.

2004, 55 pages. ArtsMarket, 1125 W. Kagy Blvd., Suite 100, Bozeman, MT 59715, (406) 582-4766, www.artsmarket.com