GIA Blog

Dollar Bank buys August Wilson Center for $1,912.50
Posted on November 5, 2014 by Steve

From Daniel Moore, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Although the deal seemed to put an end to a tumultuous five years of financial hardship for the center since its grand opening, the center’s ultimate fate remained unclear. In particular, the sale continued the uncertainty for those who have advocated to maintain the property as a hub of African-American culture and arts. For months, local leaders have expressed support for a deal in which the center would end up in the hands of three Pittsburgh foundations: the Heinz Endowments, the Pittsburgh Foundation and the Richard King Mellon Foundation. The foundations have stated their intent to continue operations of the center as a hub of African-American arts and culture.
NYC Arts Funders Create Fund to Advance Cultural Policy and Equity
Posted on November 5, 2014 by Steve

Five foundations are pooling close to a million dollars to create the New York City Cultural Agenda Fund to strengthen the City’s arts advocacy network, develop a cohesive agenda for cultural policy, and promote equity within the sector. Under the combined leadership of the Booth Ferris, Lambent, and Robert Rauschenberg foundations, The New York Community Trust, and the David Rockefeller Fund, the NYC Cultural Agenda Fund is expected to make grants of more than $700,000 over the next 18 months. Additional funders are encouraged to join.

Member Spotlight on Rasmuson Foundation
Posted on November 1, 2014 by SuJ'n

During the months of November and December, GIA's photo banner features artists and projects supported by Rasmuson Foundation.

Established in 1955 as a private family foundation, Rasmuson Foundation has a proud history of grantmaking in Alaska, including a major focus on support of arts and culture throughout the State. The Foundation directs support in the cultural sector through several channels, including direct financial support of individual artists, arts in education, museum collections and conservation, arts and cultural organization sustainability, performing and visual arts exhibition touring, and capital project support. It is also committed to strong national partnerships, including United States Artists and ArtPlace America.

Story/Time: Bill T. Jones on John Cage
Posted on October 30, 2014 by Steve

Former GIA Board member John Killacky posts to The Green Room, a blog from Walker Art Center in Minneapolis:

Three decades ago, choreographer Bill T. Jones jolted the New York dance scene. Bucking the prevailing stripped-down postmodernism, he and his partner Arnie Zane created sensational dances collaborating with composers, fashion designers, and visual artists. A new queer aesthetic emerged that was anything but minimalistic.
Exploring the Effects of an Abbreviated Intervention on Improving Financial Management for Youth-Serving Organizations
Posted on October 30, 2014 by Steve

In 2009, The Wallace Foundation launched the Strengthening Financial Management (SFM) initiative, a comprehensive multi-year intervention to improve the financial stability and planning of 26 nonprofit Chicago organizations that were providing afterschool programming. A new report by the management consulting firm CFAR — Differences a Day Can Make: Exploring the Effects of an Abbreviated Intervention on Improving Financial Management for Youth-Serving Organizations — examines the effectiveness of a one-day workshop and series of webinars offered to nonprofits by the consulting firm FMA as part of the SFM initiative.

Arts Education: The Need for More Arts Teachers in School
Posted on October 24, 2014 by Steve

Gary Steuer, posting in Huffington Post Education:

Arts in Education Week took place last month, and since then arts education has been on my mind and in the air. A recent blog post by Alan Yaffe that contended arts education advocacy should be focused more on art-making than art-viewing got me thinking. It is true, much energy goes into trying to get K-12 students to attend arts events, and that's wonderful and much-needed. We try to organize class trips, and bemoan the increasing challenges of getting access to buses, to getting the OK to leave school for an arts experience when the pressures of sticking to curriculum and "teaching to the test" are ever-present. And arts groups do all they can to provide "enrichment", to facilitate those out-of-school experiences and to also bring teaching artists or arts education programs into schools.
South Arts Receives $450,000 Grant to Build Modern Dance and Contemporary Ballet Audiences
Posted on October 23, 2014 by Steve

South Arts has received a grant of $450,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support their Dance Touring Initiative (DTI) through 2018. The initiative, launched in 2009, is building a network of performing arts presenters throughout the South that can bring modern dance and contemporary ballet companies as part of their season for public performances and artist residencies. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, as stated in their mission, “endeavors to strengthen, promote, and, where necessary, defend the contributions of the humanities and the arts to human flourishing and to the well-being of diverse and democratic societies.”

Audiences in Arts, Culture and Heritage: Solutions to our Problems
Posted on October 23, 2014 by Steve

From James McQuaid at The Guardian:

At this year’s Arts Marketing Association conference, the National Arts Strategies president, Russell Willis Taylor, made some thought-provoking points through a case study on Ikea from which she believed arts and culture can learn. One of these was about knowing your value proposition: what are you uniquely placed to offer and how can this exude through an organisation? Willis Taylor encouraged us to be opportunistic, to build in space, energy and money in order to learn, keep our eyes open and be flexible and responsive. Her example to illustrate this in Ikea was the employee who started screwing off table legs to get the furniture into customers’ cars, which led to a revolution in the brand’s production and the flatpack we all know and (mostly) love today.
Reflection: How the Arts Breach the 'School to Prison Pipeline'
Posted on October 23, 2014 by Steve

From Shelly Gilbride, writing for California Arts Council Blog:

This isn’t a class in your average school. This is a class at the Juvenile Justice Center in Alameda and these boys are incarcerated. They live in tiny, sparse cells. The walled courtyard isn’t big enough for a real game of catch. These are tough kids who have had tough lives and are currently dealing with really tough circumstances. But when they are dancing, they are just kids, trying to get the moves right. I was privileged to witness that class as part of the Alameda County Office of Education’s bold initiative to address the “School to Prison Pipeline.”
Strategies to Increase Equity in Grantmaking & Empowerment
Posted on October 21, 2014 by SuJ'n

Last week at the GIA conference in Houston, Aaron Dworkin (The Sphinx Organization), Maurine Knighton (Nathan Cummings Foundation), and Roberta Uno (Ford Foundation) presented a session on addressing the significant disparity in how funding reaches underserved communities and smaller arts organizations. Per its design, the intended session outcome was to develop a list of key strategies to address inequitable funding in collaboration with the audience members.