GIA Blog

Matt Sorum of Guns 'n' Roses Stands Up for Arts Education
Posted on February 15, 2012 by Steve

From Simone Wilson at LA Weekly:

Of all the crucial LAUSD programs on the chopping block at today's board meeting—like the entire adult-education department and after-school tutoring—perhaps the most heart-wrenching was art education for elementary schoolers.
Itzhak Perlman Advocates for Arts on Arizona Senate Floor
Posted on February 14, 2012 by Steve

Today, Itzhak Perlman spoke in support for continued funding for the Arizona Arts Commission. Also he played with a group of student musicians. Watch the video below.

Obama Administration's Federal Year 2013 Budget Proposal
Posted on February 14, 2012 by Steve

Council on Foundations Policy Update
February 13, 2012

Obama Budget Again Calls for Cap on Itemized Deductions; Also Would Reinstate Itemized Deduction Phase-Out, Establish "Buffet Rule," and Create a Simplified Excise Tax for Private Foundations

President Obama’s Budget Request for the NEA: The Fine Print
Posted on February 14, 2012 by Steve

More on the Obama budget from Narric Rome at ArtsBlog:

While the NEA’s budget proposal increases several grant categories, it is the Our Town initiative that receives the most significant support: doubled from $5M to $10M. The Our Town program made a big debut in 2011 with 51 grantees from 34 states receiving a total of $6.5M. More than half of these grants were awarded to communities with a population of less than 200,000 and seven went to places with fewer than 25,000 people. With $10M to spend in 2013, the NEA could make Our Town grants to 115 communities. Some further details...
Obama's 2013 budget calls for 5% increase for arts and culture
Posted on February 14, 2012 by Steve

From The Los Angeles Times Culture Monster blog:

President Obama’s proposed 2013 budget, released Monday, calls for a 5% increase in spending for three cultural grantmaking agencies and three Washington, D.C., arts institutions. Obama aims to boost outlays from $1.501 billion to $1.576 billion, encompassing the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities (NEA and NEH), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the National Gallery of Art.
Can This Suburb Be Saved?
Posted on February 13, 2012 by Steve

From Justin Davidson at New York Magazine:

A few years ago, an architect with a global reputation was walking me through his busy studio, boasting of his exhaustive experience. I asked if he had ever designed in the suburbs; he looked at me as if I were out of my mind. Architects tend to treat the zones where half of all Americans live as a backward, inhospitable wilderness. The suspicion is mutual: Who needs a fancy designer when builders all over the country know how to construct a peaked-roof single-family house?
A Global Nonprofit Ponzi Scheme? Lessons Learned from a Fiscal Sponsor’s Collapse
Posted on February 10, 2012 by Steve

From Rick Cohen at Nonprofit Quarterly:

When a nonprofit implodes, the tendency is to avert one’s gaze and hope that it was simply that one nonprofit or its specific cast of characters that made it a “one-off.” When the nonprofit International Humanities Center (IHC), a fiscal sponsor for over 200 projects around the world, imploded, it’s estimated that it took with it more than $1 million in donations that never made it to the intended recipients in what begins to look like a nonprofit version of a Ponzi scheme.
New from the Cultural Data Project: Grantmaker CDP
Posted on February 9, 2012 by Abigail

Grantmaker CDP is a new online interface designed by the Cultural Data Project (CDP) to provide strategic planning and program evaluation tools to help funders in the arts and cultural sector.

Arts Policy Library: Investing in Creativity
Posted on February 9, 2012 by Steve

Katherine Gressel, who has just completed her stint as a Writing Fellow for the blog Createquity, published last week a deep-dive review and analysis of the Urban Institute report from 2003, Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structures for U.S. Artists (full report is here). The research and publication of the report, as Katherine explains in her review, led to the formation of the 10-year national initiative Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC) that is in its final stages now, as well as the expansion of NYFA Source into the online database we know today.

Boston Schools Get $4m Arts Programs Boost from Wallace Foundation
Posted on February 8, 2012 by Steve

From Colin A. Young at The Boston Globe:

The Boston public schools have received a $4 million grant to maintain and expand arts education for students across the city.

Superintendent Carol R. Johnson said the grant, from the Wallace Foundation in New York, will greatly enhance an initiative launched three years ago by the school district, the city, and outside partners to provide more instruction in the visual and performing arts.