Why Arts? Making the Case

October 31, 2003 by admin

In the six years I have served at the Center, this past season has been the most dramatic. The dot.com collapse, declining economy, terrorist threats and subsequent drop in tourism, tempered the wild-eyed entrepreneurship that had invigorated our city.

Postmodernist irony may have collapsed along with the World Trade Center, but the role artists play in creating metaphor, defining space (real and imagined), commemorating losses and victories, and articulating the unconscious can never be underestimated.

Art Will Save Cleveland

August 26, 2003 by admin

This article was published in The Cleveland Free Times, July 2-8, 2003, and makes reference to the coordinated case being made in Cleveland for public funding of arts and culture.

What are the Arts Good For?

August 26, 2003 by admin

These remarks are edited from a speech given on April 27, 2003 to the Washington State Cultural Congress. Whang offers them now to GIA Readers.

Is Theater Important?

August 26, 2003 by admin

This was one of several responses to the question "Is Theater Important?" published by The New York Times on Sunday, February 23, 2003.

Nurturing Artistic Creativity

August 26, 2003 by admin

The following is an excerpt from a longer address given at the Philadelphia Museum of Art on June 23, 1998 at the presentation of the Philadelphia Award. The award, given annually to a man or woman who has "done the most to advance the best and largest interests of the community," was given to Anne d'Harnoncourt and to Jane Golden.

The Arts Dynamic in Education

August 26, 2003 by admin

The following piece was excerpted from The Arts Dynamic, a report of the San Antonio Arts in Education Task Force (see review on page 36), published earlier this year. The study's principal funder was GIA member, the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation.

Why the fine arts in education are vital

Ramon C. Cortines, executive director of the Pew Network for Standards-Based Reform at Stanford University, comments:

August 26, 2003 by admin

In 1996, Neal Cuthbert, program director at the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis, was interviewed by the James Irvine Foundation as part of a series of conversations about arts funding. This excerpt offers an example of a GIA member describing the importance of the arts program to the overall goals of the foundation.

Why Be Concerned with Artists?

August 26, 2003 by admin

The Urban Institute's study of the support structure for U.S. artists, Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structure for U.S. Artists, was undertaken to expand thinking about who artists are, what they do, and what mechanisms are needed to support their work. (See page 41 for a preview of the report.) The report began with the following section about the study's motivation and why society should be concerned.

Art, Agriculture, and Changing Times

August 26, 2003 by admin

Mas Masumoto, author of Epitaph for a Peach and Harvest Son, is an organic farmer in California's Central Valley. He is a grower spokesperson for the California Tree Fruit Growers Association and serves as co-chair of the California Council for the Humanities. En route to Portland to read from his new book, 4 Seasons 5 Senses, he stopped by the offices of the Washington State Arts Commission and talked with Willie Smyth, state folk arts program manager. In the interview, Masumoto refers to the benefits of art's reflective nature.

San Francisco

July 31, 2003 by admin

In a crowded auditorium at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, funders, community activists, and artists gathered in March to listen to a panel discussion on hip-hop activism in the Bay Area. The goal of Constant Elevation: The Rise of Bay Area Hip-Hop Activism was twofold: to inform and educate funders about hip-hop activism and how it fits into foundation support, and to highlight local best practices that use Hip Hop as a framework.