Carmen Graciela Díaz's Blog

Funders supporting legacy institutions that use the arts to address social challenges and promote access across historically underserved populations is the topic of an article last year addressing the partnership between the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust and New York City organizations to explore how arts organizations can better serve diverse communities.

St. Louis’ new Equity Indicators Project responds to "a call to action for a racial equity benchmarking process" that seeks to quantify the state of racial equity in the city and measure progress over time, as the project's page states.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) reopened January 28, after being closed and their federal workers furloughed since the government shutdown began Dec. 22, reported The Washington Post.

The Catalyst Fund, a pilot program of annual grants to adult and youth orchestras that aims to advance their understanding of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and to foster effective EDI practices, was recently launched by the League of American Orchestras.

"#Occupy; #BlackLivesMatter, #TimesUp – hands up if you are familiar with these movements. Le Balai Citoyen, Lucha, Y’en a Marre or Abahlali baseMjondolo. How many have heard of these?" Halima Mahomed, an independent philanthropy consultant, begins that way an article in Alliance Magazine in which she wagers that "unless you're directly involved in funding in their geographies," you won't know about them.

“Facing Change: Advancing Museum Board Diversity & Inclusion” is a newly released national initiative launched by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) to diversify museum boards and leadership.

In data, "many untold stories and futures are nestled between rows, columns, formulas, and colors on a spreadsheet," writes in a recent post Adriana Gallego, chief operating officer of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC). In this piece she says how patterns remind her of how impactful Latinx communities are.

“Philanthropy hasn’t done a lot for poetry,” said Elizabeth Alexander, poet and president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to The New York Times. Her words are a strong reminder of how underfunded is poetry. But this week, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced that it awarded $2.2 million to the Academy of American Poets.

Starting as a three-year pilot program and with partners in Australia, Canada, and the US, the Global First Nations Performance Network was recently launched during the First Nations Dialogues Lenapehoking/New York, a series of events that took place January 5-12 highlighting Indigenous performers.

The Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, submitted last week a 2019-20 budget proposal to the Legislature that includes an ongoing $10 million increased general fund allocation for the California Arts Council, California's state arts agency.