Grantmakers in the Arts

(4-26-10) Mike Boehm, writing for the Los Angeles Times, reports on the proposed reduction and reallocation of L.A. county's arts resources, including staff cuts and the outsourcing of city-run arts organizations to nonprofit operators. Also in the mix: "[Mayor] Villaraigosa has proposed taking $415,000 from arts grants to fund four earmarks of his own that have not been subjected to the usual competitive application process...." Read more here.

(4-23-10) NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman delivered a prepared statement while appearing, on April 13, 2010, before the Appropriation Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, U.S. House of Representatives. Here's a transcript of his statement...

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROCCO LANDESMAN
CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS
APPEARING BEFORE THE APPROPRIATION SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT AND RELATED AGENCIES
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Subcommittee:

(4-23-10) National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman today announced the NEA’s latest round of funding for fiscal year 2010 in the categories of Access to Artistic Excellence, Learning in the Arts, Arts on Radio and Television, and Partnership Agreements (State and Regional). The Arts Endowment will distribute $97,632,100 through 1,323 grants to nonprofit national, regional, state, and local organizations nationwide.

Read More.

(4-22-10) Writing for The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Phil Buchanan and Ellie Buteau discuss the pros and cons of adjusting operations to respond to data-driven expert advice and assessment results.

(4-21-10) Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation announced today that it has received a grant of $700,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The funding will support the USArtists International (USAI) program and represents a significant increase over Mellon's previous grant of $500,000.

(4-21-10) The Senate Appropriations Committee restored the $890,735 that the governor had recommended for GCA, but the House had cut out. The Senate version of the budget keeps the agency going, but with about $1.6 million less in state backing than it has in fiscal year 2010.

(4-21-10) From the New York Times..... An obscure upstate New York theater group that receives far more state aid than any of New York’s world-renowned cultural institutions is rife with corruption, mismanagement, nepotism and possibly illegal conduct, according to a scathing report released on Tuesday by the state inspector general’s office.

(4-20-10) A nearly $70,000 grant from Cherokee Preservation Foundation is enabling the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts (OICA) to purchase a vintage letterpress and cast new type-sets that will consist of the 85 characters of the Cherokee syllabary (originally there were 86). Art students will then learn how to operate the press and begin producing printed materials for use in the Cherokee language preservation program.

Read More (.pdf).