GIA Blog

The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) has released a report on the “Strengthening the Bones” convening held in the fall of 2011 that brought together over 100 individuals representing a cross section of arts services organizations, cultural centers, museums, artists and artist collectives, foundation and government funding agencies to learn and build around the community of Native art.

With extraordinarily wide-spread destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, grantmakers across the country will be looking to help with the cleanup and rebuilding.

Grantmakers in the Arts will be aggregating resources and information for funders and others interested in supporting hurricane recovery efforts. Our goal is to serve as a conduit for information for our members and constituents.

Foundations are using project related investments (PRIs) and mission related investments (MRIs) to stimulate growth in Detroit, where there is a specific need for investment capital. Writing for the Nonprofit Quarterly, Rick Cohen argues for the ability of foundations to prudently underwrite MRIs and PRIs, using as examples work in this area by The Kresge Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and others.

Chorus America's annual survey of the operations of choruses, the Chorus Operations Survey Report includes more than 40 different analyses, from number of board meetings to board giving, from ticket pricing to chorus dues amounts, from accompanist pay practices to marketing efficiency. The 2012 report features data from the 2010-2011 season.

Arts groups in Detroit will share nearly $20 million donated by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, including $9 million to be awarded through a communitywide contest to boost the city's best arts ideas, the foundation announced Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the USC Brain and Creativity Institute and Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) have announced a longitudinal research collaboration to investigate the emotional, social and cognitive effects of musical training on childhood brain development.

The five-year research project, Effects of Early Childhood Musical Training on Brain and Cognitive Development, will offer USC researchers an important opportunity to provide new insights and add rigorous data to an emerging discussion about the role of early music engagement in learning and brain function.

By Janet Brown from her blog Better Together

Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) met in Miami October 14-17 to share knowledge, debate issues and discover new pathways to supporting artists and arts organizations. As with all convenings, I wanted to be everywhere and hear everything. That’s the frustration of having diverse programming that speaks to a diverse audience. And we are a very diverse group. I wasn’t able to be in every room but here are some personal highlights.

Alberto Carvahlo, Superintendent of the Miami-Dade County School District, presented a keynote address last week at the annual GIA conference in Miami on the importance of the arts in schools. Today, his district was named the recipient of the 2012 Broad Prize for Urban Education. The $1 million Broad (rhymes with “road”) Prize is an annual award that honors the four large urban school districts that demonstrate the strongest student achievement and improvement in student achievement while reducing achievement gaps among low-income and minority students.

Grantmakers in Aging will host a free webinar, The Boomer Explosion: A Creative Look at Aging and Communities - Conversations with GIA, Monday, November 5 at 2:00 pm EST/11:00 am PST. The webinar is co-sponsored by Grantmakers in the Arts. Participants will take away key information about “boomers” who are redefining the second half of life, as well as opportunities for cultural and aging organizations to meaningfully engage this demographic.

Sphinx, the Detroit-based performing arts organization, is launching its inaugural international convening on diversity, SphinxCon, which will take place in Detroit, February 15-17, 2013. The event will bring together leaders from all disciplines of the performing arts to share ideas, challenges, successes and lessons learned in pursuit of increased diversity in all aspects of the sector. SphinxCon aims to illuminate the critical topic of diversity, doing so in an unprecedented manner and scope.