Call for Sessions: 2018 GIA Conference

Grantmakers in the Arts seeks session proposals for the 2018 GIA Conference, to be held Sunday, October 21 through Wednesday, October 24 in Oakland, California. The GIA Conference is the largest annual convening of arts funders and the most comprehensive opportunity for our colleagues in the field to learn from each other. We greatly value the experience, ideas, and programs that members share with each other and the field at large. GIA members are invited to propose conference sessions on our website. Proposals are due no later than Tuesday, March 20 at 5:00 pm EDT.

This Year’s First Webinar: Arts Funding at Twenty-Five

To mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of the first Arts Funding benchmark study, Grantmakers in the Arts commissioned arts philanthropy researcher Steven Lawrence to prepare a reflection on changes in arts and culture funding over the past over the past twenty-five years. Released in the Winter 2018 GIA Reader, “Arts Funding at Twenty-Five:  What Data and Analysis Continue to Tell Funders about the Field,” examines changing sources of support for arts and culture from the 1980s forward and the factors propelling those trends. Lawrence will review key findings and highlight more recent funding data that suggest the arts are not keeping pace with other sectors, especially in the aftermath of the Great Recession. This webinar will be facilitated by GIA President and CEO Eddie Torres.

Session 1 of the 2018 webinar series, Arts Funding at Twenty-Five, will be held on Tuesday, March 27, at 2 pm EDT / 11 am PDT.

Details are here.

A Reminder from the Support for Individual Artists Committee

GIA’s Support for Individual Artists Committee seeks individuals to serve on the Committee. The Committee is comprised of up to twenty GIA members in good standing, representing a spectrum of grantmakers who personally believe in the importance of supporting individual artists. To express interest in joining the committee or to suggest a colleague, please complete the nomination form by this Thursday, February 15, 2018.

From the GIA Reader

As GIA joins other philanthropy serving organizations at the Affinity Equity Summit, we reflect upon the work of advancing racial equity within arts philanthropy towards realizing social justice. Maggie Potapchuk and Gita Gulati-Partee offer an in-depth analysis of foundations’ engagement with race and how it relates to their grantmaking priorities, internal operations, and community leadership. In their piece in the 2014 Fall Reader, Potapchuk and Gulati-Partee examine instances in philanthropy where cumulative impact is leveraged to confront or challenge current reality of structural racism. “For foundations to work toward racial equity through their philanthropic investments and leadership, they must shine a light on white privilege and white culture both internally and externally.”

Video: Sunday IDEA Lab at the 2017 GIA Conference

Three artists — Taylor Renee Aldridge, Jenny Lee, and Bryce Detroit — spoke about the ideas and the ethos that drive their creative work during the Sunday Breakfast Plenary at last year’s GIA Conference in Detroit. Among other topics, they tackled the intersection between culture, identity, society, and social justice and ultimately the role of grantmakers in resourcing artists and their communities that have sustainable and lasting impact. Watch the video.

Elizabeth Alexander, renowned poet, distinguished speaker at President Obama’s 2009 inauguration, and 2016 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award, has been elected as the next president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation…

When a place attracts artists and craftspeople, when a community thrives because of its arts, one must pay attention. In Berea, called the state-designated “Folk Arts and Crafts Capital of Kentucky,” this has happened in part because of intentional public funding…

Surdna Foundation announced the hiring of F. Javier Torres as program director of the Thriving Cultures program, where he will lead a $9 million grantmaking portfolio…

At a time where there is a critical need for unity and the energy of collaboration, affinity groups and funders from across the US will convene on February 12th and 13th for the 2018 Affinity Equity Summit and Solidarity, Defense and Action Funder Briefing, at the Scottish Rite Center in Oakland, California…