GIA Blog

The first plenary session of this Grantmakers in The Arts’ conference focused on the National Capitalization Project, a GIA initiative launched this past January. It was premised on the plain truth that arts organizations are often under-capitalized. A task force … Continue reading →

Good morning. “And the beat goes on……………” The Arts Education PreConference Sunday was a glorious day in downtown Chicago. Blue skies, sunshine. What an absolutely spectacular city. The Arts Ed PreConference centered on one of the more difficult challenges of … Continue reading →

The Grantmakers in the Arts conference in Chicago is swirling around the question of capital and capitalization in the arts. So, we might as well define what exactly that is. Continue reading →

Shine on me Let the light shine on me The Black Monks of Mississippi I spent the day at Grantmakers in The Arts’ Support for Individual Artists preconference (entitled Artists and Grantmakers: A Shared Enterprise). Dozens of artists and funders … Continue reading →

Good morning. “And the beat goes on…………………….” Funders in Flux: I’m off to the Grantmakers in the Arts Conference in Chicago. Funders — government, corporate and foundation — from all over the country, gathering to make some sense of the … Continue reading →

I'm thrilled to be an 'official' blogger for the Grantmakers in the Arts Conference, and particularly thrilled that there's a special emphasis on the impact of capital investment and infrastructure... Continue reading →

Any enterprise can form a perfect setting for the human comedy. Generations of writers have drawn existential parables from offices, ocean liners, classrooms, farms, and operating theaters. But the philanthropic field seems especially rich—indeed, downright operatic. I think that’s because … Continue reading →

(10-13-10) Richard Kessler, Executive Director of The Center for Arts Education has a post in this afternoons Huffington Post making the case for Arts Education funding.

Read the post.

Kessler will be part of the conference session "Assuring Equitable Arts Learning in Urban K-12 Public Schools" on Monday afternoon, October 18, in Chicago.

(10-12-10) The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through Pew Fellowships in the Arts announced last week the names of twelve new Fellows, each of whom will receive a $60,000 award. These "no strings attached" fellowships are provided over one-two years to artists in the five-county Philadelphia area. Artists working in a wide range of aesthetics and traditions are selected based on the merit of their work, dedication to their professional practice, and the potential impact of the fellowship on their subsequent creative endeavors.

(10-11-10) The Life Is Art Foundation, recently began to reap a new kind of financing, in the form of tall, happy-looking marijuana plants. Late this month, with some help from the sale of its first small crop, grown under California’s liberal medical marijuana laws, the group plans to present an inaugural exhibition on its land, of sculpture and installation work by more than 20 visiting artists — some of whom will have helped bring in the harvest.