GIA Blog

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Tommer

Last week, Slate launched “Shoot the Recession,” a project in which readers were asked what the economic crisis looked like to them. The responses are available on the photo-sharing site Flickr. As of this writing, the Flickr pool is home … Continue reading

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Tommer

By all accounts but one, Fred Cray is a successful, thriving multimedia artist. He studied at Yale University’s prestigious graduate school and has several solo exhibitions under his belt. He is the recipient of the Pollock-Krasner grant, and in 2003, … Continue reading

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Tommer

Do Wall Street executives deserve big bonuses during hard times? Does increased arts funding have a place in an economic stimulus package? I’ll leave it to others to debate these controversies. Meanwhile I’d like to make a modest proposal to … Continue reading

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Tommer

The first thing we need to do is reposition the role of arts + culture in society. For many reasons the arts have moved to the fringes of cultural conversation. We need to reintroduce the idea of the arts as … Continue reading

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Tommer

The Low-Profit Limilted Liability Company (aka, the L3C) works to balance the nimbleness and clarity of a small business with the alternate income and capital opportunities of a nonprofit. As a refresher, corporate forms are creatures of the tax code … Continue reading

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Tommer

With a tumbling economy, declining attendance and tapped-out donors, things are hard enough for the arts, historical museums and other cultural institutions. That’s why it’s all the more disturbing to see Oregon lawmakers rummaging for money in the only statewide … Continue reading

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Tommer

For-profit executives use business models—such as “low-cost provider” or “the razor and the razor blade”—as a shorthand way to describe and understand the way companies are built and sustained. Nonprofit executives, to their detriment, are not as explicit about their … Continue reading

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Tommer

The good folks at Wolf Brown have some long experience on these topics, and share information on their Web site regularly. Mergers and Strategic Alliances discusses a number of the barriers to successful mergers,  both real and perceived, and offers … Continue reading

Posted on March 10, 2009 by admin

The Met Opera’s recent admission that their famed Chagall murals are now providing collateral against existing debt raises anew a fundamental business question: is art an asset for a cultural institution? Read more.

Posted on March 10, 2009 by admin

The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, 4Culture, the Seattle Foundation and the Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs commissioned Helicon Collaborative to interview leaders of diverse cultural organizations in the Northwest to determine the impacts the economy is … Continue reading