GIA Reader (2000-present)

What can you do when times are uncertain, and yet a clear opportunity to advance a collective agenda presents itself? Take action.

The League of American Orchestras’ upcoming national conference in Detroit falls just days before the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 Detroit uprising, the largest urban disruption in America since the Civil War. According to Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) president Anne Parsons, the 1967 riot was the context for the orchestra’s fellowship program for African American musicians.

Story matters, and we are at a pivotal moment in which there is a growing understanding that narratives that move hearts and minds are critical. Those of us who work at the intersection of the arts and social justice have known this for some time — in the words of Jeff Chang, “cultural change precedes political change” — but it has become apparent to many others that without compelling storytelling, policy platforms do not stick.

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 Arts Funding Snapshot: GIA’s Annual Research on Support for Arts and Culture (3 Mb)

Earned income and private giving make up the largest share of arts funding in the United States, but government funds are an essential piece of the arts ecosystem. Public investments in the arts are citizen driven and beholden to the public interest. They support inclusive experiences, promulgated by representative democracy covering every part of the country.

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   Arts Funding Snapshot: GIA’s Annual Research on Support for Arts and Culture (3 Mb)

The United States of America has been in transition its entire life. There have been moments when transition was rebellious and violent, and there have been moments when change was covert and nearly unconscious. And there have been times when we felt the American dream was possible for everyone, and times when we have felt it was possible for no one.

In 2015, Americans for the Arts partnered with the National Endowment for the Arts to conduct the Local Arts Agency Census, the most comprehensive survey of the local arts agency field ever conducted. Its purpose was to illuminate the ever-adapting role these organizations play in ensuring the arts have a vital presence in every community.

What Is a Local Arts Agency?

I was lucky as a young artist, with the ink still drying on my BFA, to learn about working in the public art field through a Minneapolis-based CETA program in 1977. CETA (Comprehensive Employment Training Act) was a federal jobs program that included several arts initiatives around the country. As gallery director of City Art Productions — the name of the one-year program initiated by Melisande Charles at the Minneapolis Arts Commission — I got to organize exhibits of CETA artists at libraries, plazas, government centers, and parks throughout the city.