GIA Blog

The Art of Love in Philanthropy
Posted on December 20, 2012 by Tommer

"There is a gift within the gift—the greatest of gifts is when it transcends the evidence upon which it is based. Its mystery is in the relationships between donor, recipient, and the community of interest that is served. It is a dynamic that operates on multiple levels." – Peter Karoff in the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

 

Lynn Stern to Depart Surdna Foundation
Posted on December 19, 2012 by Tommer

Lynn Stern, Thriving Cultures Senior Program Officer, has announced her departure from the Surdna Foundation as of January 1, 2013. In her tenure of over half a decade, Lynn was an integral part of the design and delivery of programs that gave expression to the foundation’s ongoing, deep commitment to the field of arts and culture.
 

Mark Zuckerberg to Donate $500 Million to Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Posted on December 19, 2012 by Noah

From Associated Press via New York Times:

Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said Tuesday that he would donate nearly $500 million in company stock to a Silicon Valley charity with the intention of providing funds for health and education issues.

Artists Seek Aid for Sandy Cleanup
Posted on December 17, 2012 by Steve

From Associated Press via Washington Post:

Artists, galleries and lofts, many that helped bring about a renaissance in the ribbon of all-but-abandoned warehouses that line New York’s coastal areas, face tens of thousands of dollars in repairs. Though no major museums reported damage, the toll among smaller operations and individual artists is steep. In response, various institutions and foundations are offering recovery help ranging from grants to free advice on how to rehabilitate damaged works of art.
Arts Education Increasing in California Schools?
Posted on December 14, 2012 by Tommer

Does new research reveal a surprising trend?

There are two truths arts advocates have long taken for granted:

• Arts education is in decline in public schools.
• When budgets tighten, art is usually the first to get the ax.

Attempting to quantify just how arts education has fared over the past 15 years suggests the reality is a lot more difficult to pin down.

Diane Ragsdale on the “Arts Cliff”
Posted on December 13, 2012 by Tommer

Diane Ragsdale takes on Michael Kaiser on Jumper.

Tomorrow, December 11: GIA Web Conference, Set in Stone
Posted on December 10, 2012 by Abigail

Registration is still open for the next and final installment of GIA's 2012 Web Conference Series. Set in Stone: Building America's Next Generation of Arts Facilities, 1994-2008 will be presented by Carroll Joynes and Joanna Woronkowicz of the Cultural Policy Center, University of Chicago. The webinar begins tomorrow, December 11, at 11:00 PST, 2:00 EST.

GIA Web Conferences are open to everyone. They are free to members and $35 for nonmembers.

Teaching Artists and the Future of the Arts
Posted on December 6, 2012 by Steve

From Nick Rabkin writing for Huffington Post:

When students study the arts, they develop their abilities to be creative, plan, explain their thoughts, work together effectively, build theories, make predictions, create analogies, solve complex problems and assess their own work. These are commonly understood as “21st-century skills.” What's more, a growing body of research has also shown that arts education correlates strongly with basic competencies — literacy and numeracy — and a wide range of other positive outcomes for young people. The bottom line is that children who have more arts education do better in school and in life. Significantly, the correlation happens to be strongest for low-income youth, the students most often failed by our schools.
Announcing GCIR's New Interactive Data Map!
Posted on December 5, 2012 by Tommer

This easy-to-use, interactive data hub, presented by Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees, provides a demographic snapshot of the foreign-born population by county in the United States.

New Report from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP)
Posted on December 4, 2012 by Tommer

This new report titled “Painting with Broader Strokes: Reassessing the Value of an Arts Degree" authored by SNAAP researchers Danielle Lindemann and Steven J. Tepper of Vanderbilt University and funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, focuses on the career paths of arts graduates and counters prevailing views on the value of a college education.