Arts and Technology

The Allen Foundation for the Arts is one of six foundations that make up the Paul G. Allen Foundations, a family of foundations established by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Paul G. Allen. The other Allen foundations focus on medical research, health and human services, forest protection, virtual education, and most recently, music.

We just returned from yet another community gathering where arts leaders sought the support of their business and civic counterparts by documenting the "economic impact" of arts spending and employment in their region.

By press time, the Reader had received two booklets documenting discussion forums convened by the Center for Arts and Culture.

Forum on Freedom and Diversity of Expression, moderated by James Fitzpatrick.

Arts in Education

We have transformed information into a form of garbage.
- Neil Postman

In Memory of Tom, My Brother

November 2000. Benton Foundation, 950 18th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20006, (202) 638-5770.

October 2000, 94 pages. Bay Area Video Coalition, 2727 Mariposa Street, 2nd floor, San Francisco, California, 94110, (415) 558-2100, funded by the Ford Foundation.

This study identifies successful programs and practices of training programs that provide low-income people with job skills in the technology field. The study can be helpful to grantmakers wishing to better understand this field.

This issue introduced "From Washington," a new column contributed by Shelley Feist, associate, National Culture Program, The Pew Charitable Trusts. The column provides readers with information on policy and regulatory matters at the federal level affecting nonprofit arts and culture. The aim is to present brief reports on timely but underreported items.

October 2000, 100 pages, $16. National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC), 346 Ninth Street, San Francisco, California 94103, (415) 431-1391.

The remarkable growth of the online sector in recent years can be assessed in many ways — from the rapidly expanding number of wired households (over half are now connected to the Internet) to the sheer explosion of content on the World Wide Web (which now encompasses over a billion pages). Data traffic exceeds voice traffic on the nation's phone lines now, and far more email messages than postal letters are sent every day.