Grantmakers in the Arts

Americans for the Arts latest State Arts Action Network bulletin, SAANbox, has updates on the situation with State Arts Agencies—an area of considerable drama these days, it seems. Yesterday's SAANbox includes news from many states including the heartland states of Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Kansas, where the governor may veto funding put in place by a legislature dominated by his own party.

Read yesterday's SAANbox here.

The Lincoln Center's President Reynold Levy was on MSNBC this morning to discuss how arts organizations can thrive in a tough economy, and how Lincoln Center has managed to balance their budget every year.

I am furious. Is it too much to ask the greatest nation on earth to encourage learning in the arts and make it accessible to every child throughout their K-12 public education, taught by arts specialists and respected by decision-makers as a means to a creative life, workforce and engaged learner? Here’s the string of events that started the firestorm in my head last week:

Louisa McCune-Elmore has been named as the new executive director of the organization. McCune-Elmore joins the Kirkpatrick Foundation after a thirteen-year tenure as editor in chief at Oklahoma Today magazine, where she garnered numerous awards and national recognition. She graduated from San Francisco State University in 1992. Her career, largely as a journalist and editor, has included work with such publications as Harper’s Magazine, George, Worth, and American Benefactor, a magazine dedicated to philanthropy.

For his newest blog post, Barry Hessenius talks with GIA Board Member Kristen Madsen, Senior Vice President of the GRAMMY Foundation and MusiCares Foundation, about the business of music.

As a bonus, Barry posted a video of Kristen's speech from earlier this year on Hip Hop and the power of vocabulary.

Looking to lay some groundwork for the technology track at the Grantmakers in the Arts 2011 Conference in San Francisco? Rhizome, a nonprofit affiliate of the New Museum, is dedicated to the creation, presentation, preservation, and critique of emerging artistic practices that engage technology.

The MAP Fund, a program of Creative Capital supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, announced its 2011 grants today. The Fund will underwrite 40 new projects this year spanning all disciplines of performing arts practices. A panel of peers selected the grantees from more than 800 submissions.

Grantmakers in the Arts is pleased to announce expanded web services to members, including a members-only web portal, launched in January 2011, offering access to an online directory of members and member organizations. Additional features include a simple and effective set of collaborative tools allowing members the ability to create online user groups for managing specific projects, as well as the ongoing activities of GIA member groups.