Funding Research

Like program officers everywhere, I spend a lot of time immersed in the minutia that pours from one proposal folder after another. How, then, can I keep my eyes on the big picture? Individual programs are evaluated, of course, but how can my colleagues and I measure the overall health of the city's arts and cultural sector? And what about the rest of the city? Where do the arts and artists fit into the city's economy? Our public school system? Housing? My search for the big picture reminds me of the Gauguin painting at the Museum of Fine Arts which asks “Where Do We Come From? What Are We?

A rather widely shared belief within the foundation community holds that philanthropic resources cannot, will not, and perhaps even should not, be expected to keep up with the growing and changing resource needs of the not-for-profit arts industry. This belief has generated lively discussion among arts grantmakers about the future role of foundations in supporting a healthy nonprofit arts sector in this country.

The Stevens Group, commissioned by the Otto Bremer Foundation, published All the Way to the Bank: Smart Money Management for Tomorrow's Nonprofits in September. The 115-page book is available by writing to 570 Asbury Avenue, Suite 207, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55104.

Annual GIA Conference
November 16-18, 1998
Titled "Art Under 21: At the Crossroads of Community and Youth Development," the 1998 annual conference of Grantmakers in the Arts will be held November 16-18 in Chicago. See related article in this issue. For more information call Marion Goldfinger, MacArthur Foundation 312-726-8000.

Call for Roundtable Topics

What is the financial health of the nonprofit sector and how do arts organizations compare with other nonprofits? A year-long study of the financial health of Illinois state's nonprofit sector — including the arts — provides a tool to begin answering such questions.

Richard Hugo House is a two-year old literary arts center in Seattle named after the Seattle-born poet and creative writing teacher Richard Hugo who wrote squarely and poignantly about people and places often overlooked. Hugo House offers classes, workshops, events, performances, meetings, as well as simply the time and space to read and write.

104 pages, October 2006. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 130 Humphrey School, 301 19th Ave. S, Minneapolis, MN 55455. http://www.hhh.umn.edu

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2006, 68 pages. RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138, 310-451-7002, order@rand.org. The Wallace Foundation, 5 Penn Plaza, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10001, 212-251-9700

Download PDF from either organization's website.

2006, 104 pages. Museum Loan Network with support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Office of the Arts, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, N52-401, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, 617-252-1888, loanet@mit.edu

2006, 280 pages, Fieldstone Alliance, 60 Plato Boulevard East, Suite 150, St. Paul, MN 55107, 651-556-4503, bandrews@FieldstoneAllicance.org.