GIA Blog

New Directions for Barr’s Arts & Creativity Program
Posted on February 12, 2016 by Steve

From E. San San Wong, Senior Program Officer at the Barr Foundation:

Three years ago, during the Boston mayoral race, artists, arts organizations, and engaged allies mobilized, lifted their voices, and called for greater support for the creative sector. This set the stage for Mayor Walsh to appoint Boston’s first cabinet-level arts chief in decades and to invite thousands of Bostonians to chart an inspirational course for their city through Boston Creates. Additionally, over these years, through the Barr-Klarman Arts Capacity Building Initiative, a cohort of arts and culture organizations have grown stronger and better capitalized to take artistic and organizational risks.
Creativz.us Presents Online Conversation For What Artists Need
Posted on February 11, 2016 by Steve

Billed as an open conversation as opposed to a presentation of findings or the release of a report (that will be coming in June 2016) CREATIVZ.US asks what artists in the United States need to sustain and strengthen their careers. The project is managed as a partnership by the Center for Cultural Innovation and the National Endowment for the Arts Creativity Connects Initiative, with Helicon Collaborative providing research, and with support from Surdna Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The goal now for CREATIVZ.US is to get broad input from as many artists and artist support providers as is possible. You can see the conversation happening at CREATIVZ.US.

New from the GIA Reader: The Time Has Come for a National Field of Teaching Artistry
Posted on February 10, 2016 by Steve

In an article from the latest issue of GIA Reader, Eric Booth, winner of the 2015 Americans for the Arts Education Leadership Award, makes the case for funders to support the work of the teaching artist in The Time Has Come for a National Field of Teaching Artistry.

How the Nonprofit Arts Sector Has Evolved since the Great Recession
Posted on February 9, 2016 by Steve

From Eileen Cunniffe and Julie Hawkins, writing for Nonprofit Quarterly:

There is ample evidence to demonstrate that nonprofit arts and culture organizations in the United States are rebounding from the Great Recession — albeit more slowly than other parts of the nonprofit sector. The 2014 National Arts Index compiled by Americans for the Arts notes that while the overall economic recovery began in 2009, it did not positively affect the arts until 2012. A report from the Urban Institute in 2014 showed that more arts, culture, and humanities nonprofits took the largest hit — proportionately — on revenue during the recession, and also had the largest decrease in total numbers of organizations of any of the subsectors studied.
ICYMI: NEA Webinar on the Summit on Creativity and Aging in America Report
Posted on February 9, 2016 by SuJ'n

On February 3, 2016, NEA staff and invited speakers introduced the white paper from the Summit on Creativity and Aging in America, which was hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Center for Creative Aging in May 2015. The summit brought together more than 70 experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities in the fields of healthy aging, lifelong learning in the arts, and design for aging communities. Speakers included NEA Accessibility Director Beth Bienvenu, NCCA Executive Director Gay Hanna, and 2015 White House Conference on Aging Director Nora Super.

Creating a Sharing Economy that Actually Shares
Posted on February 9, 2016 by Steve

From Laura Zabel, writing for Stanford Social Innovation Review:

Springboard for the Arts, the nonprofit where I work, just gave away its oldest program and most reliable earned income stream. We took the curriculum from our artist-entrepreneur training course, packaged it into a free toolkit, and we’re giving it to anyone who wants to start and customize their own program. We did it to increase our impact. A community and economic development organization run by and for artists, our mission is to help artists make a living and a life, and to help communities connect to the creative power of artists.
New Chief Cultural Officer Talks Philadelphia’s Creative Future
Posted on February 5, 2016 by Steve

From Brandon Baker, writing for Philly Voice:

With a new mayoral administration comes a new Chief Cultural Officer in the form of Kelly Lee, a 49-year-old Germantown native who previously served as CEO of now-defunct Innovation Philadelphia, communications director for the Pennsylvania Convention Center and director of economic development for PECO. Lee succeeds Helen Haynes in the position and joins an office that is essentially still in its infancy, re-established by Mayor Michael Nutter in 2008. Its official role is to promote the city’s cultural scene to the world, develop it as an economic engine, provide resources to artists and provide access to the greatest number of Philadelphians possible — though, its actual function is still in flux.
New from the GIA Reader: Investing in Change
Posted on February 4, 2016 by Steve

In an article from the latest issue of GIA Reader, Rebecca Thomas — a long-time partner with GIA’s Capitalization Initiative — lays out some key lessons in change capital for grantmakers in Investing in Change: Ten Lessons for Cultural Grantmakers.

Why Funding Overhead Is Not the Real Issue
Posted on February 4, 2016 by Steve

From Claire Knowlton at Nonprofit Quarterly:

Big strides have been made recently in the acknowledgment that overhead ratios are poor indicators of an organization’s impact or financial efficiency. Although the movement toward outcomes-based measurement offers a promising alternative to understanding impact, very little has been done to truly shift the sector’s understanding of what it takes — or even means — for nonprofits to be financially efficient and adaptable. The myths and misinterpretations of the true full costs of delivering vital programs have contributed to a chronically fragile social infrastructure for our communities.
NEA Releases Report on the Arts and Healthy Aging
Posted on February 3, 2016 by Steve

The Summit on Creativity and Aging is a report on the May 2015 convening of more than 70 experts co-presented by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA) that preceded the White House Conference on Aging, that was held July 2015. The report investigates three topics relevant to healthy aging: health and wellness and the arts, lifelong learning in the arts, and age-friendly community design.