Community Arts

The Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation, a social impact funder at the intersection of music, public space, and community building, today announced it will spend down its $150M in assets over the next two decades and will close its doors in 2041.

The Zellerbach Family Foundation is thrilled to welcome Chibueze Crouch as its first Community Arts Fellow. An Igbo-American artist & writer, Chibueze Crouch (they/she) performs and creates immersive, experimental live art spanning ritual theater, song, movement, video, and text. 

From NEA: President Joseph R. Biden will present the 2021 National Medals of Arts in conjunction with the National Humanities Medals on Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at 4:30 p.m. ET in an East Room ceremony at the White House. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden will attend. The event will be live streamed at www.whitehouse.gov/live

From the National Endowment for the Arts: "This profile features U.S. and state-level estimates of arts participation rates from the 2020 Arts Basic Survey. The Arts Basic Survey (ABS) is a short-form edition of the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA), which typically has been conducted on a five-year basis. The ABS and the SPPA are designed by the National Endowment for the Arts and fielded by the U.S. Census Bureau as a supplement to the Current Population Survey."

From AgitArte: "¡Saludos! For the first time AgitArte is hosting a funders briefing to share our most recent work and celebrate the last 25 years of cultural solidarity work, popular education, agitation and arts for our collective liberation. We are inviting all of our foundation and philanthropic supporters and partners to join us in imagining the next 25 years of AgitArte’s critical work. Details and RSVP information below. We hope you can make it and we can’t wait to see you!"

From Alliance for California Traditional Arts: "Communities of Change discusses and interrogates definitions and terminology of the field, and describes case studies illustrating some of the larger issues and nuances inherent in this discipline, such as tradition and innovation, concepts of indigeneity, and cultural immersion as a teaching model. We list major cultural communities and related art forms across the wide band of 11 Bay Area counties, and share snapshots illustrating the contours on a county-by-county basis. Additionally, we examine some trends in Bay Area ethos of activism which have contributed to how traditional arts have been supported and undervalued in society and by the funding community. Finally, we conclude with recommendations and implications for the broader arts field and the philanthropic sector."

"The report is authored by Rinku Sen and Mik Moore - leaders in social change narrative strategy, and we are very excited to share it far and wide, especially with funder networks who likely have had narrative change discussions bubbling up more and more. The report shares the deep gaps in understanding and funding approaches to narrative change, but more importantly, offers a framework for funders. It issues an urgent call for foundations to fund via Mass culture, Mass media, and Mass movement."

From the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage: "The act of creation takes on a multiplicity of forms. In our ongoing artist interview series, we illuminate the distinctive artistic practices, influences, and creative challenges of our Pew Fellows, who represent a diversity of perspectives and creative disciplines."

"In this installment, three performance artists—angel shanel edwards, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, and Alexandra Tatarsky—discuss the audiences that motivate them, their dream collaborators, and the idea of “leakiness” between disciplines."

"The Creativity Pioneers Fund catalyzes transformational social change by investing in, connecting, and championing cultural and creative organizations that advance bold and unconventional practices for building a more just, inclusive and equitable world. Working with and alongside organizations, donors and other stakeholders across the creative ecosystem, the Fund aims to mobilize a collective effort to advance Creativity for Social Change."

"We are thrilled and delighted to be launching two new Artists At Work (AAW) programs in the Mississippi Delta and Greater Chattanooga Thrive Region," AAW shared in an announcement earlier this month. "We are honored to be championing these artists and their communities as they work together on projects that highlight the positive impacts of artistic civic engagement."