Community Foundation

Arts and education grantmakers at an historic gathering in Santa Fe in October of 2007 agreed on the need to forge a new vision for public education in the United States and to collectively explore how the arts can help shape and realize that vision.

Convened by Grantmakers in the Arts and Grantmakers for Education, more than 100 foundation representatives met formally for the first time under the aegis of their two affinity organizations to debate and discuss the role of the arts in education.

2007, 73 pages. The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations, 5 Bennett Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, (617) 496-5675, www.ksghauser.harvard.edu

According to some, "the word twain has its origin in the Old English twegen, meaning two. The phrase never the twain shall meet was used by Rudyard Kipling, in his Barrack-room ballads, 1892: 'Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.'" Kipling uses a colonial lens to bemoan the lack of commonality and accord between the British and the indigenous East Indian. Until my recent trip to New Mexico I often felt that same lack of accord between arts funders and education funders.

2007, 57 pages. The Boston Foundation, 75 Arlington St., Boston, MA, 02116, (617) 338-1700, www.tbf.org
PDF online: www.bostonindicators.org

There are few moments in life when you get to experience a series of "firsts." That thought occurred to me in the Albuquerque airport as a first-time visitor to New Mexico, as well as a first-time attendee to both the GFE and GIA conferences.

When funders move into indigenous communities they tread a very fine line. On one side of the line they have a duty to undertake sufficient investigation to ensure that they properly understand a funding request and their own role in relation to it. On the other side, obtaining the information may conflict with the ability to acknowledge and give appropriate respect to the applicant's indigenous culture and its bounds.

My first horse was like New Mexico.

On summer grass under an arch of the cottonwoods, no creature could have been more beautiful, at least to my eye. He was a big rangy bay with a white blaze, and he animated the afternoons just by lazing into view. He was an ordinary country gelding, but his long-limbed grace and equine pride conjured a kind of magic. At a hundred yards, when he lifted his head, I could feel his kingly disdain. He was all horse, not an ounce of Flicka, and he could fly over the hills. Not to coin a phrase, but I was enchanted.

2006, 336 pages. Russell Sage Foundation, 112 East 64th St, New York, NY 10021, 212-750-6000, info@rsage.org

124 pages. Western States Arts Federation, 1743 Wazee Street, Suite 300, Denver, CO 80202, 303-629-1166, www.westaf.org

Proceedings from this Western States Arts Federation symposium that included artists and arts administrators from all over the west-ern states, feature topics related to the emergence of a new generation of arts leaders

2006, 240 pages. New Village Press, P.O. Box 3049, Oakland, CA 94609, 510-420-1361, www.newvillagepress.net