Funding Research

This time it was the catastrophic devastation in the Gulf States. Last time it was the 9/11 attack. Before that were the floods in North Dakota, the earthquakes in San Francisco and Seattle, and Hurricane Hugo in South Carolina, and then

Each time disaster strikes — whether natural or man made — communities face inestimable emotional and economic suffering. When artists, arts organizations, and cultural institutions are affected by these disasters, the confusion and bewilderment about what to do and how to help extends very directly to us as arts grantmakers.

Who's afraid of symphony orchestras? It seems that lots of foundations are these days. It has been exactly a half century since the Ford Foundation's massive sixty plus million dollar program was introduced to stabilize orchestras. Ford's initiative was followed by others and foundation funding became a major component of orchestra support for a few years. But today, only one foundation has a major national funding program for orchestras. Even many local foundations seem cautious about supporting them.

Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture
Findings from Animating Democracy
Pam Korza, Barbara Schaffer Bacon, and Andrea Assaf
2005, 312 pages, $24. Americans for the Arts, Washington DC, ISBN-13: 978-1-879903-33-3 (alk. paper)
Available online from Americans for the Arts

Cultural Perspectives in Civic Dialogue
Case Studies from Animating Democracy
Pam Korza and Barbara Schaffer Bacon

Can you explain, in simple terms, how you or someone you know is changed by listening to music, watching a dance performance, looking at an artwork, or writing in a journal? I’d be hard pressed to manage a coherent response.

It’s not easy to talk about how art transforms or how we are different because of it. Many who work in the arts, including those of us who do so because of our belief in the transformative power of art, lack a vernacular for communicating its impacts.

2004, 18 pages. Los Angeles County Arts Commission, 500 West Temple Street, Los Angeles, CA, 90012, 213-974-1343

Download pdf: www.lacountyarts.org/artsed/docs/artsedu_artsforall09-02.pdf

Under Marian Godfrey's direction, GIA held a pre-conference immediately before its 2005 conference called "New Directions in Cultural Policy Research." As part of that meeting, four well-respected individuals were asked to assess the impact and importance of research in the arts. They were asked to specify the big ideas currently in play and to speculate about the future of those ideas. Predictably perhaps, the four argued for the importance of research to the cultural sector. More surprisingly, they agreed that the platform for cultural research needs serious re-planking.

2005, 18 pages. Neighborhood Funders Group, 1301 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036, 202-833-4690, www.nfg.org

Download PDF: www.nfg.org/publications/nfg_25_years.pdf

This brief report documents the work of this organization and the growth of the community development field in philanthropy since 1980.

2005, 18 pages. International Federation of Arts Councils and Cultural Agenciers. Strawberry Hills, NSW, 2004, Australia, www.ozco.gov.au

Download PDF: http://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/32627/Making_Crosscountry_Comparisons_of_Cultural_Statistics__Problems_and_Solutions.pdf

2005, 36 pages. Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, 1413 K Street, 2nd floor, Washington, DC 20005, 202-898-1840, www.geofunders.org

2005, 60 pages. Blueprint Research and Design, 720 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94102, 415-677-9700, www.blueprintrd.com

Download pdf: www.blueprintrd.com