May’s Member Spotlight

This month we feature the Creative Work Fund, a program of the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, on GIA’s monthly Member Spotlight. Click here to read about the Creative Work Fund and its support for artists creating new works through collaborations with nonprofit organizations.

Advocacy and Arts Education: GIA’s latest podcast

We kicked off our Arts Advocacy series in March and we are excited to provide more insight on how you can become an arts advocate. This month we explore advocacy through an arts education lens. This podcast features Jessica Mele, program officer in Performing Arts at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Sam Massol, director of advocacy and engagement at the Center for Arts Education, moderated by Eddie Torres, Grantmakers in the Arts president and CEO. They dive into a discussion on how funders can best support their grantees given the current national landscape. Click here to listen.

“Leveraging the Every Student Succeeds Act to Advocate for the Arts” Webinar

As the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) rolls out in states, arts funders have a unique opportunity to respond and support arts advocacy efforts. In this webinar, we feature Jane Best, director of the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) at the Education Commission of the States in Denver, CO. Best will provide an overview of ESSA and the value it brings to states via a case study on her advocacy work in partnership with the California Alliance for Arts Education (CAAE). Joe Landon, CAAE executive director, and Title I Program Director Laura Smyth will speak to the positive impact of arts education advocacy on their Title I initiative. Join us for this deep dive and learn what you can do to support advocacy efforts in arts education.

“Leveraging the Every Student Succeeds Act to Advocate for the Arts” will be held on Tuesday, May 29, at 2:00pm EDT / 11:00am PDT. Details and registration available here.

A Collaborative Webinar: “Impact investing in the creative economy”

Arts and cultural production represents 4.2 percent of the United States economy, or $760 billion, and socially responsible investing has reached $8.7 trillion. However, impact investing in arts and culture, nationally, is 0%. This presents a unique opportunity. As we see foundations increasingly align their investing with their missions, as Nathan Cummings Foundation recently announced, impact investing in the creative economy is a way to ensure increased support for arts and culture and the communities they serve.

Hosted by Foundation Center, this webinar — examining mission-related investment (MRI) strategies within foundations — features:

• Laura Callanan, founding partner of Upstart Co-Lab
• Eddie Torres, president & CEO of Grantmakers in the Arts
• Ellen Friedman, executive director at the Compton Foundation
• Gary Steuer, president & CEO of Bonfils-Stanton Foundation

They will address how MRIs have the potential to advance their organizational missions and work toward a creative economy that is sustainable, equitable, and inclusive—before it’s too late. The discussion will also explore impact investing as an innovative opportunity to invest in the arts and unlock resources specifically for ALAANA communities.

“Impact Investing in the Creative Economy” will be held on Thursday, May 31, at 2:00pm EDT / 11:00am PDT. Details and registration available here.

Response/ABILITY, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council (GPAC) annual convening, will center conversations on funding trends, equity issues, and how to meet the challenges currently facing the arts…

In Chicago, at last month’s PolicyLink Equity Summit, a tour of the city focused on how local journalism provides a voice to the equity agenda. In a recent piece, Nonprofit Quarterly highlights some examples that showcase the importance of investing in journalism and the power news stories have to advance conversations about and actions toward…

In partnership with 15 Massachusetts arts organizations, the Barr Foundation has announced a $30 million, six-year initiative to amplify the organizations’ leadership to nurture more culturally vibrant communities…

In times when the conversation on how rent increases impact artists and communities’ ties with their history, a post by the Northern California Grantmakers discusses how the Kenneth Rainin Foundation has tackled the question of how to make more of its dollars to assist organizations stay put as rents rise across the Bay Area…