2001 Conference Proceedings

Culture Influencing Community Change
New Paltz, New York
November 5–7, 2001

Every ten years we take stock of our nation's populous. We learn how our ethnic balance is shifting. We discover which cities are most densely populated and which are dying. To an extent, we are able to see trends that relate to the behavior of the age, gender-base, and race of our cohorts. It is most appropriate that our conference theme this year was Culture Influencing Community Change; for the 2001 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference took place just as analysts had an opportunity to think about the implications of the 2000 Census.

Following three urban conferences in Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Chicago, we were once again planning a conference in a more contemplative setting when we gathered at the Mohonk Mountain Resort,a rustic natural environment in the historic Hudson River Valley. We took on some big ideas, including what communities of the twenty-first century will look like, and what our role as grantmakers might be in the face of changing needs of the makers and consumers of culture. We followed up with an examination of coalition building within the arts funding community. We looked at funder collectives that seek to stabilize arts organizations and challenges that segments of the artistic community face when old structures fail, and we shared a variety of new strategies.