Why Arts? Making the Case

2003, 201 pages. Pearson Education Inc./Financial Times Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458, Pearson Education Inc.

Immigrant and refugee communities historically have played key roles in the Bay Area's growth and rich diversity. As California enters the twenty-first century, demographic figures reflect significant increases in immigrant pop-ulations. Amongst these communities are myriad performance ensembles, in-dividual artists, teachers, and participatory arts events that strengthen comm-unity ties, reinforce a vibrant cultural heritage, and enrich the lives of Bay Area residents.

The summer 2005 issue of the GIA Reader contained an article consisting of excerpts from a group blog discussion on ArtsJournal.com titled, "Is There a Better Case for the Arts?"² The blog was inspired by Gifts of the Muse: Reframing the Debate about the Benefits of the Arts, a study commissioned by the Wallace Foundation "to improve the current understanding of the arts' full range of effects in order to inform public debate and policy."³ Twelve individuals participated in the online d

"We have a term in our language called gW3dZadad— it is a form of wealth. It's the wealth of knowledge of culture of our peoples, our laws, our ceremonies, our songs, of the names of our ancestors...Our ancestors live today as long as we pass it down to our children.”
Bruce subiyay Miller, Community Spirit Award recipient

2004, 180 pages, ISBN 0-325-00603-2. Heinemann, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. 361 Hanover Street, Portsmouth, NH, 03801-3912, 603-431-7894, www.heinemann.com

Directed toward educators and school administrators, this book outlines how the integration of arts-based instruction can create breakthrough educational moments in and out of the classroom, and provides practical real-world experience to guide teachers and administrators around problems that can derail the best-planned reform efforts.

November 2004, 12 pages. Americans for the Arts, 1000 Vermont Avenue NW, Washington, DC, 20005, 202-371-2830, www.AmericansForTheArts.org

These results of a national survey by The Society for the Arts in Healthcare (SAH) provide a snapshot of the current level and characteristics of arts programs in hospitals The data is supplemented by brief portraits of exemplary programs and moving reflections from participating patients and care providers.

March 2003, 126 pages. The Richard Driehaus Foundation, 203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1800, Chicago, IL 60601, and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 140 S. Dearborn Street, Suite 1100, Chicago, IL, 60603

Download pdf: http://www.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7BB0386CE3-8B29-4162-8098-E466FB856794%7D/SMALL_BUDGET_ARTS_ACTIVITIES.PDF

As Tia Oros Peters so eloquently states in her essay that follows, there is no particular word for art in the thousands of Indigenous languages of the world. While there are hundreds of Native American languages, the same holds true; Native Americans do not and cannot separate the importance of art and culture from everyday life. It is one goal of GIA's Indigenous People's Network to bring this important way of life to the fore of grantmakers' thinking.

The fall 2002 issue of the Reader (volume 13, number 3) introduced an ongoing feature, "Why Art?" as a response to GIA's goal to strengthen the role of arts and culture in philanthropy and in society as a whole. This Reader feature aims to help members and others make stronger arguments for the support of arts and culture by sharing examples of arguments, case statements, insights, and stories that convey the multifaceted role that culture, the arts, and artists play in our society, neighborhoods, and individual lives.

The full text of this article is not yet available on this site. Below is a brief excerpt.