Pre-conferences

Rural Arts Funding: Exploring a Hidden Landscape

Organized by Lisa Mount, Alternate ROOTS; Nancy Fushan, Bush Foundation; Claudine Brown, Nathan Cummings Foundation, and Art Thompson, Cooper Foundation. Presented by Lisa Mount, Nancy Fushan, Claudine Brown, Art Thompson, and Tim Marema, vice president for communications, Center for Rural Strategies.

Departs at 6:00 pm, Friday evening, October 10 from the Omni Hotel CNN Center, returns 4:00 pm, Sunday, October 12.

Ditch the stereotypes and misperceptions about rural places. It's time to deal with the real issues, the opportunities and the promise that are present in rural America. This pre-conference will address the social justice and cultural concerns affecting rural communities, offering funders the chance for lively dialogue and sharing creative ideas with experts in rural economic and cultural policy. Participants will spend Saturday in Sautee Nacoochee, nestled in the foothills of Georgia's Appalachia, where the community is animated by an arts, heritage and environmental center. We'll journey on Sunday to the Hambidge Center, Georgia's oldest artists' residency pro-gram. Throughout this pre-conference, ideas large and small will be examined—an overview of rural issues, conversations with local artists, hands-on opportunities to investigate local culture. The experience will be rounded out with excellent locally-grown food and a comparative sampling of the “mountain spirits” for which Northeast Georgia is rightly famous.

The first full day of this pre-conference will be a joint session with the Social Justice Pre-Conference; Social Justice participants will depart Saturday night for Atlanta.

Pre-conference registration fee is $200.00.

Participants need to make their own reservations for Friday 10/10 and Saturday 10/11 nights at the Hampton Inn in Helen Georgia, (706) 878-3310. The conference rate is $188.00.Pre-conference space is limited and early registration is encouraged.


Arts & Social Justice Pre-conference: Grantmaking with a
Racial Equity Lens

Organized by Claudine Brown, Nathan Cummings Foundation.

Departs at 6:00 pm, Friday evening, October 10 from the Omni Hotel CNN Center, returns to Atlanta 9:00 pm, Saturday, October 11. Continues on Sunday, October 12 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Martin Luther King Historic Site in Atlanta.

This two-day pre-conference will spend Saturday with the Rural Arts Funders pre-conference (above) and return to Atlanta for a further examination of arts and social justices topics on Sunday.

“All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem brings us face to face with another problem.”
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Strength to Love, 1963

Atlanta, Georgia is the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King and is often recognized as the home of the Civil Rights Movement. Though many of us have lived long enough to see schools and eating establishments desegregated and the inclusion of people of color in leadership roles in the public sector and corporate America, racism remains a structural problem in the United States. Come to the Martin Luther King Center where the Arts and Justice Funders Working Group will present a pre-conference workshop for grant-makers who want to strengthen their skills to address issues of racial equity for greater overall effectiveness in their work. This interactive session will draw from expert resources, the wisdom of peers in the room, and the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity/GrantCraft Guide to Grantmaking with a Racial Equity Lens. Participants will take away arts and culture case studies, and an array of resources and tools to continue the discussion within their foundations and with grantees.

Sunday's co-faciltators will be:

Maya Wiley, founder and director of the Center for Social Inclusion and Vice Chair of the Tides Network board. A civil rights attorney and policy advocate with nearly 20 years experience, Maya Wiley has litigated, lobbied the U.S. Congress and developed programs to transform structural racism in the U.S. and in South Africa. Maya was formerly a senior advisor on race and poverty with the Open Society Institute and has worked for the ACLU, the NAACP and served on Human Rights Watch's board.

and...

Lori Villarosa, executive director of the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE), a multiyear project intended to increase the amount and effectiveness of resources aimed at combating institutional and structural racism in communities through capacity building, education, and convening of grantmakers and grantseekers. Lori has worked within the field of philanthropy for more than 17 years, having been a program officer at the C.S. Mott Foundation prior to launching PRE in 2003.

Pre-conference registration fee is $200.00.

Participants need to make their own reservations for Friday 10/10 at the Hampton Inn in Helen Georgia, (706) 878-3310. The conference rate is $188.00. On Saturday night 10/11, you'll need a reservation at the conference hotel, the OMNI at CNN Center, (800) 524-0500.

Pre-conference space is limited and early registration is encouraged.


Understanding the Changing Arts Environment: Putting Recent Research to Work for You

Organized by Marian Godfrey, Pew Charitable Trusts, and John E. McGuirk, James Irvine Foundation. Presented by Marian Godfrey, John McGuirk, and Tom Kaiden, chief operating officer, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.

Departs at 9:00 am, Saturday, October 11 from the Omni Hotel CNN Center, returns to the hotel in the evening. Continues on Sunday, October 12 from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon.

This two-day pre-conference will focus on understanding changes in the complex non-profit arts ecology, and provide practical ways for funders to apply recent research and information to their daily grantmaking practice.

Participants will engage in discussions with thought leaders and national researchers to understand the rapidly changing environment, driven by demographic shifts, technology and new medias, and changing consumer be-haviors. We will examine our challenge as funders to rethink our program policies and strategies in ways to support our constituent arts organizations, individual artists and audiences.

Among others, presentations will include:


This pre-conference will be finished on Sunday morning to enable participants to also attend either of the Sunday afternoon tours described below. Separate registration is required for tours.

Pre-conference registration fee is $200.00.

Participants need to make their own hotel reservations for Friday 10/10 and Saturday 10/11 nights at the OMNI at CNN Center, (800) 524-0500.

Suggested Links:

Los Angeles Times: Arts fundraising shifts gears in a perilous economy

Pre-conference space is limited and early registration is encouraged.


A Walk down Sweet Auburn, Historic Hub of Black Atlanta

Organized by Dr. Jamil S. Zainaldin, Georgia Humanities Council, Cliff Kuhn, Georgia State University, and Lisa Cremin, Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund

Sunday afternoon only.

Departs the Omni Hotel CNN Center at 1:00 pm, returns by 4:00 pm.

This tour will explore Auburn Avenue, the historic center of African American commerce and social life in Atlanta, described by Fortune Magazine in 1954 as “the richest Negro street in the world.” It is also the location of the Martin Luther King National Historic Site, the place where King was born, preached, headed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and is buried. Participants will learn about the interlocking network of black community institutions that emerged along Auburn Avenue during the era of segregation, and the avenue's key role in the modern civil rights movement. Particular attention will be paid to cultural landmarks along Auburn, from distinctive architecture to night clubs to the first blackowned radio station in America to public art installed before the 1996 Olympics. The tour will include a performance by the Voices Project, an ensemble of high school students organized in conjunction with the centennial observance of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot. The end point of the tour is the historic water tower in the Auburn Avenue district. Here, artists are creating a multidimensional public art project commemorating the civil rights movement that will open to the public in October as part of the Atlanta Celebrates Photography festival.

www.cchrpartnership.org

Pre-conference registration fee is $75.00.

Pre-conference space is limited and early registration is encouraged.


Drawing the BeltLine Map

Organized by Imani Constance Burnett, M.Ed., vice president, Southeastern Council of Foundations, Atiba Mbiwan, associate director, The Zeist Foundation, Inc., Vincent Murphy, trustee Tanne Foundation, and Barbara Saunders, program officer, The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation

Sunday afternoon only.

Departs the Omni Hotel CNN Center at 1:00 pm, returns by 4:00 pm.

Part field trip, part conversation, and part imagineering, this outside-the-box pre-conference will give participants a sneak peak at the early stages of the Atlanta Beltline, an ambitious initiative to reconnect and reinvent the country's fastest-growing metropolitan area.

The Atlanta Beltline is the largest, most wide-ranging urban development currently underway in the nation. When complete, the Beltline will be Atlanta's “emerald necklace,” a 22-mile loop of greenspace along historic railroad tracks, connecting neighborhoods within the city, adding over 1,200 acres of greenspace and incorporating trails, transit, public art and improved inner-city housing.

By bus, on foot and by bicycle (an option for the adventurous!), participants will take an up-close look at the layered geography that defines Atlanta as a “city in the forest.” The adventure begins with inspiration from “Willa's Wonderland,” a graphic novel and collaborative vision of the future of Atlanta created by architects and artists. Willa, a precocious 11-year old cartoon character, has her own very colorful ideas about the meaning of urban revitalization. With Willa's vision as the catalyst, participants will have the opportunity to brainstorm with colleagues, local artists and architects and share their own ideas about the role that arts and culture can play in adding value, contour and texture to the Atlanta Beltline vision and to greenspace initiatives in their own communities.

This future-focused adventure will take participants to actual Beltline sites, capture participants' ideas in a Beltline “hope chest” and include a stop at a site-specific art installation in an old water tower that sits along the route—an immersive sound and video environment evoking Atlanta during the Civil Rights movement. The session will close with a “wind down” at a local café with open discussion with Beltline movers and shakers.

www.beltline.org
www.loomstudio.com/willas_wonderland/

Pre-conference registration fee is $75.00.

Pre-conference space is limited and early registration is encouraged.