Arts Funders Respond

Five years after the devastation of Hurricane Maria, Hurricane Fiona has caused catastrophic destruction in Puerto Rico, killing at least two people and leaving nearly the entire island archipelago without power and water. Below you will find opportunities to lend your support to Puerto Rico.

Post-Maria, the US federal government set aside billions for reconstruction, but communities in Puerto Rico remain vulnerable. Puerto Rico’s vulnerability stems from a combination of factors, including the Fiscal Control Board’s requirement that Puerto Rico privatize its power grid.

Communities across Eastern Kentucky and Southwest Virginia are devastated by intense and ongoing flooding, with more storms looming. At least 30 people have died, hundreds remain missing, and countless others have lost their homes and belongings in the waters. Kentucky Gov. Beshear estimates it may take months to restore running water there, and excessive heat and infrastructure damage will pose further threats once the floods subside.

Launched in 2015, Common Field - a national network of independent visual arts organizations and organizers that connects, supports, and advocates for the artist-centered field - announced that, “after a comprehensive auditing and strategic visioning process in 2021, Common Field has made the decision to begin an intentional sunsetting process and will close as an organization in December 2022.”

Memphis Music Initiative (MMI) recently announced the launch of "Call & Response: The Sound of Black Arts Revolution," a campaign and "a call to funders in the creative youth development nonprofit space to do better by the Black and brown leaders who give so much of themselves to their communities, and the young people they serve. Black Pay Matters. Black Legacy Matters. Black Rest Matters," according to the announcement in late March.

“We offer our story as one example (amongst many) of what it can look like to answer the call to fund racial justice. Five years ago, we at the Pink House Foundation (PHF)—a small family foundation based in Washington, D.C.—set out to explore what it could look like to redefine philanthropy with justice at the center,” report Hanna Mahon and Luke Newton Newton in Inside Philanthropy.

"Chicago’s creative vitality is worth celebrating, but we must acknowledge that support for the arts and culture sector has not been distributed equitably across the city’s geographies or populations. With this in mind, in 2019 MacArthur announced a new approach called Culture, Equity, and the Arts (CEA), through which we directly support organizations with annual budgets of $2 million and above," Geoffrey Banks, senior program officer, Chicago Commitment, shares a new, more equity-centered approach for our funding to small and medium sized arts and culture organizations.

"As the nation recognizes Black History Month, it is an opportunity to lift up the power of the arts while celebrating the contributions of Black artists to the collective tapestry of our nation," writes National Endowment for the Arts Chair Dr. María Rosario Jackson in a statement this month following her confirmation. Jackson is the first African American and Mexican American woman to serve as chair of the NEA.

"[Elizabeth] Alexander came to the organization with a specific mandate, she said, of 'sharpening the focus—doing all the work, every penny, through a social justice lens.' That meant asking what she called sharper questions," writes Maximilíano Durón in ArtNews' profile of Alexander's leadership at the helm of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation since 2018. “What are the stories that we haven’t heard about? What are the cultural points of view that have not been centered? What are the units that have not been resourced or uplifted?”

The Mosaic Network and Fund Funder Learning Intensive 2021-2022, a one-year online learning intensive aimed at supporting a cohort of up to 100 New York City-based arts funders in their efforts to normalize racial justice concepts and implement racial equity practices at their organizations, is seeking participants.

A group of philanthropic organizations signed a joint letter condemning the violence that unfolded January 6 as a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol.