Advocacy and Public Policy

The Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development, Inc. (SGF) was founded in 1977 "as an intermediary Native American foundation and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting and maintaining the uniqueness of Native Peoples and our nations." More than a regranting organization, SGF provides not only grants but also advocacy, leadership training, management support, training, and technical assistance to Native community-based projects in the continental United States, Alaska, Hawai'i, Canada, and South and Central America. SGF is a new member of GIA.

To Protect the Powerless in the Digital Age
An Open Letter to Foundations: To Protect the Interests of the Powerless in the Digital Age, Communications Researchers Need Your Support

The "open letter" has a number of signers.
August 12, 1998. 33 pages. The Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, 818 18th Street, N.W. Suite 810, Washington, D.C. 20006, 202-887-0301, forum[at]civilrightsforum.org.

I still remember my first sight of New York. It was really another city when I was born—where I was born. We looked down over the Park Avenue streetcar tracks. It was Park Avenue, but I didn't know what Park Avenue meant downtown. The Park Avenue I grew up on, which is still standing, is dark and dirty. No one would dream of opening up a Tiffany's on that Park Avenue, and when you go downtown you discover that you are literally in the white world. It is rich—or at least it looks rich. It is clean—because they collect the garbage downtown. There are doormen.

"It takes thirty leaves to make the apple."
— Thich Nhat Hanh

Lance T. Izumi is a senior fellow in California studies at the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy. The following text is based on a transcript of Izumi's remarks at a symposium sponsored by the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF). The topic of the two-day symposium was the support of visual artists. It was held in Seattle on December 4 and 5, 1997. The remarks are published here with permission of Izumi and WESTAF.

The NEA has been mired in controversy for most of the past decade, during which time it has lost much of its appropriation and even more of its autonomy, as Congress has directed larger chunks of its annual appropriation to the states, earmarked other moneys for special purposes, and effectively placed off limits NEA fellowships for most kinds of artists.

Evaluations of arts education programs raise some of the greatest challenges I face in reviewing proposals. Even in a secular age, when people are pressed to describe the nature of art, they come to words like "essence." How do we get to a point where we know that children have learned to make and to encounter that kind of knowing?

Copies of the report may be obtained from the Alliance of Artists' Communities, 210 SE 50th Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97215

The Alliance of Artists' Communities released American Creativity at Risk: Restoring Creativity as a Priority in Public Policy, Cultural Philanthropy, and Education. The report documents a symposium held in November, 1996 and attended by artists, educators, administrators, critics, and grantmakers.

Hotel-Motel Taxes for the Arts
AMS Planning and Research, edited by Randy Cohen - 1996, 11 pages

Sales Taxes for the Arts
Duncan M. Webb, AMS Planning and Research - 1996, 15 pages

Amusement Taxes for the Arts
Martha I. Dodson, edited by Rachel S. Moore - 1997, 14 pages

Americans for the Arts Books c/o Whitehurst & Clark, 100 Newfield Avenue, Edison, New Jersey 08837, 800-321-4510 ext. 241, www.artsusa.org.

Documentary Filmmakers' Statement of Best Practices in Fair Use
2005, 8 pages

The New Deal: How Digital Platforms Change Negotiations between Public Media and Independent Producers
2006, 16 pages

Center for Social Media, American University, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016-8080, 202-885-3107, socialmedia@american.edu