Arts and Community Development

From the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation: 

Community Foundations for Just Communities
Thursday January 18 from 2-3:30 EST/1-2:30 CST/noon-1:30 MST/11-12:30 PST

Community Foundations can open doors for new ways to support artists and arts organizations.  Donor advised funds (DAFs), collaborations with private foundations, advocacy and lobbying are all aspects that can bring more resources to the field.  

From Regional Arts Organizations:

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awards thousands of grants each year to provide diverse opportunities for arts participation. However, historically underserved communities with rich and dynamic cultural identities continue to report lower arts participation rates than other groups. To address these disparities and better understand these dynamics, the NEA, in partnership with South Arts and in collaboration with the five other U.S. Regional Arts Organizations (RAOs), launched a new grant program, ArtsHERE. 

From National Endowment for the Arts: A new initiative from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced today aims to expand access to arts participation in our country. A partnership with South Arts and in collaboration with the other five U.S. Regional Arts Organizations (RAOs), ArtsHERE will provide non-matching grant support for organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to equity within their practices and programming.

Lifetime Arts is thrilled to announce that its Co-Founder/CEO, Maura O’Malley, has been named 2024 AARP Purpose Prize Award Fellow. The AARP Purpose Prize Award is a national recognition that honors a select group of people aged 50-plus who have proven that they are using their knowledge and life experience to make a difference. As part of this award, Lifetime Arts will receive $10,000 and a year of technical support to help deepen and expand its creative aging work nationally. 

From Leela Dance Collective: Leela Dance Collective, the Los Angeles-based internationally-touring kathak dance company that combines classical dance from North India with contemporary influences, announces today that it has reached its initial $1 million goal for The Leela Foundation. This endowment fund is the only one of its kind, designed to support the future of kathak dance and Hindustani classical music in the United States.

From Pew Research Center: The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (the Center) announced today that it has awarded 40 grants and fellowships totaling $9 million in support of Philadelphia-area cultural organizations and artists. The grants will fund public events and programs that celebrate the diverse and creative contributions of local artists and tell personal stories of prominent Philadelphians. Several projects highlight the role of the arts in grappling with illness, healing, and caretaking—especially since the pandemic—while others focus on contemporary expressions of cultural identity.

"This summer there’s been a steady stream of articles about American theaters in jeopardy, with headlines like 'Theater Is in Freefall' (Washington Post) and 'American Theater Is Imploding Before Our Eyes' (New York Times). Prestigious theaters around the country are pausing and terminating programs and laying off staff," said Ariel Fristoe for Saporta Report. "Meanwhile, my theater company is booming. Out of Hand Theater has landed on a model that has tripled our income in four years while moving our neighbors to action on important issues and elevating the role of theater in our community. It’s a win for art, a win for business, and a win for our community, and I want to share it in the hopes that other arts organizations can benefit from it in this time of crisis."

"Pairing theater with information and conversation leads to a culture shift towards social justice, increases visibility, and provides new income streams, making theater financially viable and increasing its community value while serving the greatest community needs." 

From LA County Arts: Today, the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture announces over $31 million dollars will be awarded to over 750 arts, cultural, and equity-building organizations, a historic County investment in the nonprofit creative sector.

Over twenty-six million dollars of that sum comes from Los Angeles County’s allocation of the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) relief and recovery programs. To distribute these one-time funds, the Department of Arts and Culture designed and implemented Creative Recovery LA. This initiative supports the nonprofit creative sector that is facing ongoing challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, and focuses on organizations located in and serving communities most impacted by COVID and inequity. With a $26.4M total, 668 grantees, and over 1,900 individual grants awarded through the program’s innovative 5-in-1 grant opportunity design, Creative Recovery LA is believed to be the largest single publicly funded arts grant program in the history of the Los Angeles region.

From Third Wave Fund: There is too much at stake right now. Every day there are escalating political attacks and legislative curtailing of bodily autonomy and human rights. It is critical that gender justice movements are able to focus on the work ahead, instead of jumping through hoops and bureaucracy in philanthropy.  

Organizations that make up these powerful movements need and deserve consistent support to build new skills, to build power, to grow their own vision, and to experiment, fail, iterate, and try again. And they need this space without the risk of losing their institutional partners or funding. That’s why in 2016 Third Wave started the Grow Power Fund, our long-term support fund that awards six-year grants meeting youth-led grassroots gender justice organizations wherever they’re at in support of their sustainability and long haul visions for community liberation. 

From Capital Collaborative by Camelback Ventures: In this episode of “It’s Not Your Money,” Capital Collaborative Funder In Residence, Jessamyn Shams-Lau, talks with abdiel j. lópez from Justice Funders, to share what a ‘Just Transition’ for philanthropy looks like, how some funders are already moving their power to communities, and how anyone can take steps towards healing and community-centered practices. 
 

Watch the webinar recording here.