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National Nonprofit Arts & Culture Sector Recovering from Recession Despite Declines in Contributed Income
Posted on November 30, 2015 by Steve

From Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance:

Cultural groups continue to recover from the Great Recession, with revenue increasing 7% and attendance up 3% from 2009 to 2012. This is despite significant drops in most sources of contributed support, according to 2015 Portfolio: Culture Across Communities, a new eleven-city report on the cultural sector released today by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.
In Kansas, Federal Arts Funding At Risk Again
Posted on November 17, 2015 by Steve

From Rhonda Holman, writing for The Wichita Eagle:

The lesser effort that replaced the abolished Kansas Arts Commission has put the state at risk of losing federal funding again. It’s disappointing to see the arts still under siege in the state – and now the threat is as much fiscal as ideological.
Canadian Prime Minister Pledges to Boost Cultural Investment
Posted on November 9, 2015 by Steve

From Julie Halperin at The Art Newspaper:

Artists and arts administrators are optimistic about Justin Trudeau, the leader of the Canada’s Liberal party who was elected Prime Minster in October. Trudeau, the son of the celebrated former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, has pledged to invest an additional $380m into arts and culture. Over the past eight years, the cultural sector has seen its funding decline under Stephen Harper’s conservative government. Between 2006 and 2014, per capita funding for the Canada Council for the Arts shrunk by 8.3%, from $5.54 to $5.08, according to a report released in September by the Canadian Arts Coalition. (Canada still beats the US, which dedicated $3.84 per capita in arts funding in 2014, according to Grantmakers in the Arts.)
New from the GIA Reader: What Does Culture Look Like When #BlackLivesMatter?
Posted on November 6, 2015 by Steve

In an article from the latest issue of GIA Reader, Justin Laing of the Heinz Endowments explores the question: What Does Culture Look Like When #BlackLivesMatter?

Cuyahoga Arts & Culture Celebrates Renewal of Cigarette Tax to Support Arts, Culture
Posted on November 4, 2015 by Steve

Ohio voters in Cuyahoga County said “yes” to Issue 8, the penny-and-a-half tax and sole revenue source for Cuyahoga Arts & Culture (CAC), the County’s public funder for arts and culture. The renewed tax, which was set to expire in January of 2017, will provide CAC ten additional years to invest millions in the local arts and culture sector and support thousands of events in Cuyahoga County communities each year.

NFF and The Kresge Foundation Release New Recommendations on Capitalization in the Arts Sector
Posted on November 2, 2015 by Steve

Nonprofit Finance Fund has announced a pair of summaries on capitalization in the arts sector that distill findings from NFF's study of 36 capital grants made by the Foundation to arts organizations between 2010 and 2012. Building a Culture of Capitalization in Your Organization and Recommendations for Capital Grantmakers were both prepared with support from The Kresge Foundation.

Rockefeller Foundation Puts $1.46 Million to Theater Access for Low-Income Students
Posted on November 2, 2015 by Steve

The Rockefeller Foundation has announced, at a press conference on the stage of Broadway's Richard Rodgers Theatre, that it has pledged $1.46 million to pay for 20,000 New York City 11th graders, all from schools with high percentages of low-income students, to see Hamilton, a history-laden hip-hop hit that will be part of a series of Wednesday matinees starting April 13, 2016 and extending into the 2016-2017 Broadway season.

Lifetime Arts Training Institute Coming Up for New York Arts Organizations
Posted on November 2, 2015 by Steve

Lifetime Arts is holding its Winter Training Institute, a creative aging professional development program for metro New York arts organizations, November 30 through December 3, 2015. The program will take place at Fordham University at Lincoln Center in New York City. Hosted by Lincoln Center Education, the Training Institute is a multi-phase Creative Aging program designed to help arts organizations and teaching artists expand their education programming to older adults.

New from the GIA Reader: Public Funding for the Arts: 2015 Update
Posted on October 30, 2015 by Steve

In the annual report from NASAA on public funding trends, Ryan Stubbs and Henry Clapp update the data from 2015 in the Reader article, Public Funding for the Arts: 2015 Update.

An Executive Director’s Guide to Financial Leadership
Posted on October 28, 2015 by Steve

An important article from Nonprofit Quarterly's archives, authored by Kate Barr and Jeanne Bell:

There is an important distinction between financial management and financial leadership. Financial management is the collecting of financial data, production of financial reports, and solution of near-term financial issues. Financial leadership, on the other hand, is guiding a nonprofit organization to sustainability. This is the job of an executive director.