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Alex Aldrich On Assessment
Posted on September 7, 2012 by Steve

From Alex Aldrich, executive director, Vermont Arts Council:

For the sixth time since arriving in Vermont I am working on the Arts Council’s Partnership Application to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). It is, in the truest sense of the word, a labor of love. When else does one have the opportunity to cram what could easily amount to a 150-page discourse on programs and services offered to artists, arts organizations, schools, and communities into a mere 11 pages?
In Memory of Lee Dennison
Posted on September 7, 2012 by Steve

From Vickie Benson, Arts Program Director, The McKnight Foundation:

In the early 1990s, I worked for the legendary Advancement Program at the National Endowment for the Arts. I loved that program. It had its flaws, but it was a trail blazer for all of the other adaptive capacity building programs. I loved working at the NEA then. Lee Wick Dennison, the Assistant Director of Challenge and Advancement, was my supervisor. Lee taught me how to read the notes to the audit before looking at the line items. Although Lee was a Certified Public Accountant, she always looked for the story in the numbers and in the notes. I learned this from Lee. She also imparted her understanding of the many challenges of successfully running an arts organization--she dealt with them all, small and large. Her deep knowledge of organizational development and finance combined with humor and patience has stayed with me for more than twenty years. I became a thoughtful and discerning grantmaker because I had strong mentors. I will never forget Lee Wick Dennison and the wonderful, whimsical way that she walked in the world.
It Is Broke, We Should Probably Fix It: The Nonprofit Model and the Arts
Posted on September 6, 2012 by Steve

From Alexis Clements at Hyperallergic:

It can be a subtle thing — the way in which an organization or collective comprised of ambitious and purposeful people working toward a clear set of goals starts to slip into something a bit murkier; something that seems to be more about self-perpetuation and outsiders’ goals than about that original impetus to come together. Oftentimes growth is the reason for change. Our society applauds and encourages growth at every level — personal, familial, organizational, economic and political — despite the increased time and resources that growth demands. And many people in the US take the corporate structures of most businesses and nonprofits for granted, without questioning the ways that hierarchical models concentrate power among small groups of people and can easily get in the way of achieving goals and benefits for society.
Fiscal Sponsorship By the Numbers
Posted on September 5, 2012 by Steve

From Ian David Moss at Fractured Atlas Blog:

This Friday, new research on fiscal sponsorship in the dance world will be released. Produced by Fractured Atlas for Dance/NYC as an extension of last year’s State of NYC Dance report, “Discovering Fiscally Sponsored NYC Dancemakers” examines quantitative and qualitative data from five fiscal sponsors that collectively represent more than 250 “dancemaker”-led projects in New York City, and makes comparisons where possible to information on nonprofits from the Cultural Data Project.
Warhol Foundation Will Donate or Sell Its Whole Collection
Posted on September 5, 2012 by Steve

From Robin Pogrebin at The New York Times:

Beginning this fall the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts will disperse its entire collection of Warhols, donating some and selling others through Christie’s auction house as it shifts almost exclusively into a grant-making organization, foundation officials said in interviews. The sales will take several years to complete and are expected to garner about $100 million, increasing the foundation’s endowment, from which it makes grants to nonprofit arts organizations.
National Conference Call: This is What Democracy Looks Like!
Posted on September 5, 2012 by Steve

The Arts & Democracy Project is hosting a conference call on Thursday, September 20 at 1pm EST. Participants are encouraged to share nonpartisan election work or listen in to learn about opportunities to get involved. The Project's intent for this call is to help connect civic participation opportunities with creative organizing by artists and cultural organizations, both before the election and after.

Flashback to 2007: Four Short Plays, Four Big Ideas
Posted on September 5, 2012 by Steve

Grantmakers in the Arts commissioned a play for the Council on Foundations Conference in the spring of 2007 from KJ Sanchez that was called Four Short Plays, Four Big Ideas. The performances of those four plays was release later on DVD. But if you've not seen Four Short Plays, you can now stream the entire performance from our website. Check it out here. And remember that Sanchez, as part of the American Records Theater Company is producing a new short play, Duck Soup: A Play on Equity as part of the Monday Plenary session at the 2012 GIA Conference, next month in Miami Beach. We hope to see you there!

Becoming a Networked Nonprofit
Posted on September 4, 2012 by Steve

From Beth Kanter, writing for Stanford Social Innovation Review:

The environment in which nonprofits are doing their social change work has changed dramatically over the past five years. It’s more complex, online networks are central to our lives and work, and stakeholders want more involvement. Seeing tangible results from your organization’s social change efforts now requires two things to be successful: leading with a network mindset, and using measurement and learning to continuously improve.
Science and Art Go Hand-in-Hand
Posted on September 4, 2012 by Steve

From Steven Ross Pomeroy, assistant editor for Real Clear Science, for Scientific American:

Despite the profound connection between art and science, art programs across the nation are on the chopping block. In June, the U.S. House of Representatives proposed significant funding cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts. Schools nationwide are eschewing art programs to instead focus on teach-to-the-test courses catered to math and reading. The problem here is that a narrow focus on testing reinforces narrow-minded thinking. Young Americans are being educated out of creativity.
Creative Placemaking and the Politics of Belonging and Dis-Belonging
Posted on September 3, 2012 by Steve

A blog post from Roberto Bedoya, Executive Director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council, for Arts in a Changing America:

A favorite song of mine is “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered…” the Ella version that is warm, radiant, where your feel each word in pure tones. Ella sings about love; a blind love and the escape from that bewitchment. This is the song that plays for me in the background when I think about the practices of “Creative Placemaking”, which as an arts manager and policy maker, I define as those cultural activities that shape the physical and social characteristics of a place. I embrace Creative Placemaking and its aspiration as is manifests in a variety of methods – from city planning to art practices with a goal of advancing humanity. But I am bothered by what I consider a significant blind spot – a blind love of sorts – in the Creative Placemaking discourse and practices.