GIA Blog

Does the Diversity on Foundation Staff Exhibit Good Leadership?
Posted on March 9, 2015 by Steve

From Ruth McCambridge, writing for Nonprofit Quarterly:

The Council on Foundations just released its latest salary survey, so we thought we would share some of its most pertinent findings as they relate to diversity and leadership data from other surveys. Some of it conforms to what we see happening in the rest of the sector — older, relatively white CEO leadership with relatively long tenures.
  • Relatively long CEO tenures: More than 40 percent of grantmaker CEOs have been CEO for ten or more years. This is almost exactly the same percentage as was found in the recent survey of nonprofits performed by BoardSource, where it was reported that 41 percent of the CEOs who responded had been in their positions for 10 years or longer.
Barry’s Blog Interviews McKnight’s Benson
Posted on March 9, 2015 by Steve

Vickie Benson, arts program director for The McKnight Foundation (and former GIA Chair), talks to Barry Hessenius:

Foundations are in business to be in support of their missions. McKnight’s arts program follows a legacy set early on by the McKnight Foundation Board of Directors—the arts program supports working artists. We rely on arts organizations to provide the support structures that working artists need to be successful — institutions of all types, sizes, and ages that support working artists.
Bloomberg Announces Finalists Cities in Public Art Challenge
Posted on March 5, 2015 by Steve

Bloomberg Philanthropies announced on March 5 the 12 finalist cities in the running to receive up to $1 million each as part of the Public Art Challenge, a new program aimed at supporting temporary public art projects that engage communities, enhance creativity, and enrich the vibrancy of cities. Bloomberg Philanthropies invited mayors of U.S. cities with 30,000 residents or more to submit proposals for innovative temporary public art projects that address a civic issue, and demonstrate close collaboration between artists or arts organizations and city government. More than 230 cities submitted proposals for consideration in the Public Art Challenge, representing 68 million residents across the United States.

Stanford Hosts Symposium on Equity in Entertainment
Posted on March 4, 2015 by Steve

From Jenna Shapiro at The Stanford Daily:

“Getting Played,” Stanford’s “first annual symposium on equity in the entertainment industry and awards” took place on Feb. 21 in Annenberg Auditorium. Leaders in the industry discussed issues of diversity and equality as part of the event, which also honored individuals who have advanced equity in entertainment. The symposium’s organizer and moderator, Kathleen Tarr, is a lecturer in Stanford’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric. She created the symposium to open up discussion about how the entertainment industry treats and represents people of color.
Ron Chew’s Keynote Speech at National Guild for Community Arts Education Conference
Posted on March 4, 2015 by Steve

Ron Chew, a leader in the community-based model of museum exhibit development, delivered a keynote address to the Conference for Community Arts Education in November 2014 called The Five Essentials: Arts and the movement for social justice. The text of the keynote is published at Northwest Asian Weekly:

Member Spotlight on The Kentucky Foundation for Women
Posted on March 3, 2015 by SuJ'n

During the month of March, GIA's photo banner features artists and projects sponsored by the Kentucky Foundation for Women (KFW). Founded as a private foundation in 1985 by writer Sallie Bingham, her founding gift of $10 million is one of the single largest endowments to any women's fund in the United States. KFW is celebrating thirty years of promoting positive social change by supporting varied feminist expression in the arts.

GrantCraft Releases Guide on Supporting Grantee Capacity
Posted on February 26, 2015 by SuJ'n

This morning, GrantCraft released Supporting Grantee Capacity: Strengthening Effectiveness Together. This guide looks at how funders approach capacity-building with grantees. It uses examples from foundations from a range of sizes, fields, and geographic regions. The guide covers various topic areas including broadening the grantee capacity-building conversation, applying lenses to focus and inform grantmaking, knowing your own capacity, acknowledging power dynamics, and assessing impact.

Read more about the guide here.

How Art Morphs in Pursuit of Money
Posted on February 24, 2015 by Steve

From Peter Dobrin, writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Is the act of funding great art its own reward? Or does the funder have the right — or even the responsibility — to make sure that what gets produced accomplishes a set of objectives for both the giver and the recipient? It is a given now that in order to get a foundation grant, it’s often not enough to simply apply for funding of what you do day in and day out. What do funders want? Innovation! New ways of “engaging” younger audiences! High-impact special projects that others will want to emulate!
Where Was the Oversight?
Posted on February 23, 2015 by Janet

By Janet Brown from her blog Better Together

From large major institutions to small nonprofits, one of the critical responsibilities of volunteer board members and funders is to assure best practices in fiduciary and organizational management. When a management issue arises that threatens the stability of a nonprofit arts organization, “where was the oversight?” is often the question on everyone’s lips. There are some common misperceptions and unfortunate “group think” that prevent or discourage adequate oversight by board members. Here are a few:

Partnership Explores Role of Arts in Health Care
Posted on February 22, 2015 by Steve

From Naseem Miller, writing for the Orlando Sentinel:

The Dr. Phillips Center Florida Hospital School of Arts and Wellness, unveiled on Thursday morning, aims to integrate various forms of art into wellness, whether it’s in the community or in health-care settings to help families, caregivers and people with conditions such as autism, dementia, trauma or anxiety… The center’s effort is part of a national movement — from the military’s National Intrepid Center of Excellence that integrates arts into care of returning soldiers to the Arts & Medicine Institute in Cleveland Clinic — but data and standards are still emerging.