Carmen Graciela Díaz's Blog

For the Mellon Foundation's 2020 annual report, the foundation's president Elizabeth Alexander reflects on how Mellon moved through the past year's challenges due "to the institutional analysis in which we already had been engaged, examining and reframing our mission and values within a new strategic direction and rigorously clarifying which problems we were trying to solve with our grantmaking."

For the month of July, GIA’s photo banner features work supported by Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona.

An article in Chalkbeat discusses efforts that have "attempted to ban critical race theory, the academic framework that examines how policies and the law perpetuate systemic racism."

The Communicative Arts Academy, "a vital hub for a community largely excluded from Los Angeles’s cultural institutions," is at the center of this New York Times Style Magazine article.

Equity in the Center's Race Equity Cycle Pulse Check is a free, online tool "to assess where organizations are on the Race Equity Cycle."

Theatre Communications Group announced the launch of THRIVE!, a regranting program to provide unrestricted funds and professional development and technical assistance for U.S.- based Black Theaters, Indigenous Theaters, and all Theaters of Color (BITOC), according to the Blackfilm.com.

NDN Collective expects to open an Indigenous-led, culture-based school in Rapid City, South Dakota, in Fall 2022. The school, set to serve 40 students in the first year, "will be the first Indigenous-led school designed specifically for students in the Rapid City community," as the announcement explains.

The Opportunity Fund announced support totaling $1,112,500 in grants to arts and social and economic justice organizations, the largest cycle in its seventh year of grantmaking. "The increase in amount awarded is a result of the Board of Directors decision to release funds at a rate of 6% of its endowment annually, rather than the minimum requirement of 5%," states the announcement.

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has partnered with the White House in its “We Can Do This” campaign to encourage people to get their COVID-19 vaccine "so that all arts venues can open and welcome audiences."

E. San San Wong, Barr Foundation program director and GIA Board of Directors alumni, wrote recently a piece on why centering racial equity is necessary for achieving Barr’s Arts & Creativity program goals.