Steve's Blog

The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation has announced that Laura Packer will leave the foundation, where she has served for 13 years, to become the new executive director at the Howard Gilman Foundation, effective on July 22. The Gilman Foundation makes grants to performing arts organizations in New York City. Laura will have the opportunity to grow the organization into an innovative and leading supporter of the arts in the city.

As the Arts Program Director at Dodge, Laura worked to connect the arts and community and implemented new and creative ways to strengthen the sector throughout the state of New Jersey. Prior to joining Dodge, her career in New Jersey had taken her from General Manager at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival to the New Jersey Theatre Alliance, where she spent 13 years as its first executive director.

The United States Senate today voted to confirm William D. “Bro” Adams as the 10th chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Adams is expected to begin as Chairman in the coming days. He was president of Colby College in Waterville, Maine from 2000 until his retirement on June 30, 2014.

Articles from the Summer 2014 edition of GIA Reader, Volume 25, No. 2, are available on the GIA website. Contributors include photographer Lisa Hamilton, Charles Finn, and Anne Gadwa Nicodemus, who put a focus on artists and grantmakers working in rural places. Finn, editor of High Desert Journal, interviews four rural poets. And we include a poem from each interviewee. John R. Killacky talks to Meredith Monk about her fifty years of art making. Justin Laing and his brother Alex Laing have a conversation on race, identity, and transformative arts practice. See the complete online Reader at www.giarts.org/reader-25-2.

The Digital R&D Fund for the Arts, a £7 million fund created to support collaboration between organizations — supported by the Arts Council England along with the organizations Nesta and Arts & Humanities Research Council — have begun a new publication, Native: Magazine of the Digital R&D Fund for the Arts. Though digital is the word here, there is a limited print edition that you can request (presumably on a per-issue basis). Both describe the projects being funded currently by the publisher as well as features profiling people and organizations, including a piece about Diane Ragsdale.

From Keith Schneider, for The New York Times:

GIA members and other grantmakers can now register for the GIA 2014 Conference online! As planning for the 2014 Conference in Houston continues, the conference website will hold complete and detailed information on the schedule, plenary speakers, and special events happening on the conference dates of Sunday, October 12-15. Details of eligibility and online registration are there, as well. See it all at conference.giarts.org.

From Patrick Sullivan, at The NonProfit Times:

California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. has signed a state budget that includes a one-time $5 million increase in general fund support for the California Arts Council. This is the first time in over ten years the arts have seen an increase of general fund monies, after support for the Arts Council was cut by 94% in 2003.

The McKnight Foundation has named Minnesota visual artist, performer, designer, director, and teacher Sandy Spieler as the 2014 McKnight Distinguished Artist, in recognition of artistic excellence spanning four decades. Now in its 17th year, the annual honor includes a $50,000 cash award and recognizes individual Minnesota artists who have made significant contributions to the quality of the state’s cultural life.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti has nominated Danielle Brazell as General Manager of the Department of Cultural Affairs. Brazell has led Arts for LA since 2006, transitioning it from an ad-hoc steering committee composed of local executive arts leadership to a highly visible arts advocacy organization serving the greater Los Angeles region. Brazell’s nomination is subject to confirmation by the City Council.