GIA Blog

Thousands participate each year in Minneapolis' Art-a-Whirl, the largest artist open studio tour in the country, according to a recent article in Next City. But a recent survey-based study on the gentrification of Northeast Minneapolis found, among other things, that “the act of creative placemaking has driven Northeast Minneapolis’ unique form of gentrification in the Twin Cities,” with Art-a-Whirl as the sign of that change, as Next City reported.

Elizabeth Méndez Berry, Grantmakers in the Arts board member, and Chi-hui Yang make the case for the need for cultural critics of color and discuss the work of the Nathan Cummings Foundation and Ford Foundation's initiative, Critical Minded, amplifying the work of cultural critics of color, in a recent piece published in The New York Times.

At a time when reparations are subject of debate, the organizers of an Afrofuturist music festival in Detroit neighborhood that will take place in August charged white people twice as much to attend. A backlash followed, as media outlets like The Washington Post reported.

"The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) has added new urgency to the question of what is the future of charitable giving by individuals in the United States," states a post by Randy I. Cohen, of Americans for the Arts, and Patrick Rooney, of Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

Drawings by migrant children, released recently by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), depict how the children interpret conditions inside Border Patrol detention facilities, as media outlets like Time and Hyperallergic reported.

Seven leaders from across the United States were recently named Knight Public Spaces Fellows, an initiative of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to advance the creation of public spaces that strengthen community engagement and connection, according to the press release.

Museums embracing sustainable investing: an article in Artsy by Anna Raginskaya, a financial advisor with the Blue Rider Group at Morgan Stanley, makes that case saying, "As endowed organizations, museums have a powerful voice that can parallel the stories told within their galleries."

The Souls Grown Deep Community Partnership (SGDCP), the sister organization to Souls Grown Deep Foundation, recently announced that it is committing $1 million to impact investments as part of Upstart 2.0, an initiative led by Upstart Co-Lab.

For the month of July, GIA’s photo banner features work supported by Wyncote Foundation.

In The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s latest annual report, foundation President Elizabeth Alexander explains how the foundation works to support arts and humanities projects that advance a better world.