GIA Blog

Posted on April 23, 2014 by Steve

The M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust in Vancouver, Washington, is pleased to announce Lorin Dunlop who joins the staff as Program Director beginning in late June. Dunlop comes to the Murdock Trust with a rich, diverse background in Arts & Culture, health, education and, most recently, coordinating the Oregon Criminal Justice grants program in public safety and offender re-entry. She is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she double majored in Art History and International Affairs.

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Steve

An article from Foundation Review — authored by Gary L. Cunningham, Northwest Area Foundation; Marcia L. Avner, University of Minnesota-Duluth and Romilda Justilien, BCT Partners — explores the multiple approaches that foundations can use to advance racial equity and prosperity. “The Urgency of Now: Foundations’ Role in Ending Racial Inequity” is built on the premise that if we remain on the current trajectory with no significant change in the socioeconomic position of low income people of color, everyone will pay a price.

Posted on April 17, 2014 by Tommer

The Walter & Elise Haas Fund, working together with the Foundation Center and Mission Minded, has developed an open-source, free solution that any grantmaking entity can use to make its grantmaking data searchable, publishable, sharable, and fully accessible.

Posted on April 16, 2014 by Steve

National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Acting Chairman Joan Shigekawa announced today that the NEA plans to award $74.85 million in 971 grants to nonprofit organizations nationwide as part of the second half of its fiscal year 2014 funding. In addition to direct grants through the Art Works category, this round of funding also supports the state arts agencies and regional arts organizations – the NEA's partners in bringing the arts to all parts of the nation – as well as grants for research projects that build evidence on the value and impact of the arts.

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Steve

Emiko Ono writes for ArtsBlog:

In the past, a productive arts organization was understood to contribute to a community’s quality of life and help drive its economy — it was inherently perceived to be a public good. This “social contract” is fraying based on a growing awareness of the very real inequities that exist in the United States... The nonprofit arts sector, including its funders, is increasingly expected to do more for distressed and marginalized communities if it is to merit designation as a public good.
Posted on April 13, 2014 by Steve

From Graham Bowley and Patricia Cohen, writing for the New York Times:

The Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, tucked into a quiet corner of a college campus here in the hills of the Pacific Northwest, is hardly the epicenter of the art world. Yet major collectors, fresh from buying a Warhol or a Basquiat or another masterpiece in New York, routinely choose this small, elegant redbrick building at the University of Oregon to first exhibit their latest trophy. The museum’s intimacy and scholarship are likely to play some role in their choice. But a primary lure for the collectors is often something more prosaic: a tax break.
Posted on April 11, 2014 by Tommer

President Obama announced his intent to nominate Dr. William “Bro” Adams as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dr. Adams is President of Colby College, a position he has held since 2000. Previously, he was President of Bucknell University from 1995 to 2000.

Posted on April 10, 2014 by Steve

EmcArts, the social enterprise for learning and innovation in the arts, is taking proposals for Innovation Lab, their 16-month-long immersion programs for U.S.-based arts and arts service organizations seeking to uncover adaptive strategies and responses to their most complex challenges. The program was launched in 2008 and will deliver two more rounds of the program to eight participating organizations from across the country in 2014 and 2015. These new rounds are funded by a $1.58 million grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Four organizations from across the country will be selected for each of these two rounds.

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Steve

New York City Mayor de Blasio today appointed Tom Finkelpearl as Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs. A sculptor by training, he most recently served as executive director of the Queens Museum, where he completed a major expansion that doubled the size of the museum. Finkelpearl began his career in arts management at Long Island City’s PS 1 Contemporary Art Center in 1982, which he joined as a public affairs officer, and then went on to organize a number of major exhibitions. In 1990, he joined the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs as Director of the Percent for Art Program, overseeing more than 100 public art projects across all five boroughs.