Arts Research

To Protect the Powerless in the Digital Age
An Open Letter to Foundations: To Protect the Interests of the Powerless in the Digital Age, Communications Researchers Need Your Support

The "open letter" has a number of signers.
August 12, 1998. 33 pages. The Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, 818 18th Street, N.W. Suite 810, Washington, D.C. 20006, 202-887-0301, forum[at]civilrightsforum.org.

GIA members in Chicago are hopeful that you are preparing to join us for GIA's 1998 annual conference — “Arts Under 21” — that will concentrate on youth and arts using the city of Chicago as a laboratory and model. Here in the Second City, we're awfully proud of our cultural institutions and since the conference can't possibly show it all off in four days, it seems useful to give a snapshot of some of the other arts events and programs that will be in Chicago this November.

A critic for The New York Times, wrote about last winter's Perigino exhibit at the Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan, "This is perhaps the most important exhibit of the decade, in the least important of places."

Evaluations of arts education programs raise some of the greatest challenges I face in reviewing proposals. Even in a secular age, when people are pressed to describe the nature of art, they come to words like "essence." How do we get to a point where we know that children have learned to make and to encounter that kind of knowing?

At the 1997-98 New York Grantmakers in the Arts' program meetings, members agreed to focus on one discipline for a more in-depth look. Dance, perhaps the most beleaguered of all disciplines, was selected as the first test.

It was agreed that the goal was to raise the level of understanding of the needs and issues facing New York City's dance community. NYGIA commissioned Mindy Levine, a respected consultant who is well versed in dance and has completed studies for Dance/USA, to prepare a briefing paper: "New York City's Dance Community: Current Status and Needs."

Copies of the report may be obtained from the Alliance of Artists' Communities, 210 SE 50th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97215

The Alliance of Artists' Communities released American Creativity at Risk: Restoring Creativity as a Priority in Public Policy, Cultural Philanthropy, and Education. The report documents a symposium held in November, 1996 and attended by artists, educators, administrators, critics, and grantmakers.

At Target Community Relations, our weekly staff meetings culminate with the presentation of the week's "Pepper Grinder Award." Any staff member who has made a gaffe of significance is encouraged to self nominate, disclosing his or her outlandish act of stupidity to the rest of the staff. The winner (or loser, depending on your point of view) is presented with a gauche pepper grinder that must be prominently displayed in his or her office until the next meeting.

The book was published by Americans for the Arts' Institute for Community Development and the Arts. Copies may be ordered from the organization at 100 Vermont Avenue N.W., 12th floor, Washington, D.C. 20005.

I am a fan of peer panels and have always enjoyed serving on them. Coming from a dance/theater background I view them as a performance event rich with actors and drama, text and subtext. I particularly appreciate the transformation of a group of individuals into a temporary community of purpose. Panelists are introduced, size each other up, conduct negotiations, build consensus, argue and disagree, acknowledge their differences, struggle to find a common language, reach certain compromises, and finally come to a set of conclusions.

1999, 556 pages, Alpert Award in the Arts, 1414 Sixth Street, Santa Monica, California 90401.

"Somewhere between tête-à-tête and performance” is the way Irene Borger, program director of the CalArts/Alpert Award in the Arts, describes the interviews with twenty award recipients that are featured in this volume marking the program's fifth anniversary.