Funding Research

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.

The magnitude and distribution of foundation arts and culture grants in 2004 are the most significant findings of this report. Key findings of the report, based on arts grants of $10,000 or more reported to the Foundation Center by 1,010 of the larger U.S. foundations, are highlighted here.

This report also includes a brief examination of of government funding for the arts from 1992 to 2006 by Kelly Barsdate of NASAA.

Download:

May 2005, The Urban Institute, 2100 M Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20037, (202) 833-7200, www.urban.org

"The idea that expressive activities contribute to building and preserving communities has become an increasingly important part of economic development and community revitalization discourse in cities, towns and nations around the world."
Carole Rosenstein, Ph.D.

2005, 320 pages. Theatre Communications Group, New York, NY, 10018, Theatre Communications Group

2005, 32 pages. The Boston Foundation, Boston, MA, 02116

This study reports on the impact and roles of arts service organizations (ASOs) in the Boston area and nationwide. Considered "the unacknowledged gems of the cultural ecosystem," ASO services help other nonprofits to achieve certain economies of scale and to function as if they were larger operations. At the same time, many ASOs themselves do not have the budgets or staff capacities to make a real impact. The study outlines a strategy for supporting this segment of the cultural sector.

2005, 32 pages. Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley , 1153 Lincoln Avenue, Suite I, San Jose