GIA Conference proceedings

May 31, 2008 by admin

A continuation of the discussion on strategic operating support grants. Do these grants improve an organization's accountability and stability? How do private and public grantmakers sustain the arts ecosystem without creating an over-dependence on any one funder? When providing strategic operating support for organizational change, where does the funder's role end and the arts organization's board of directors' role begin and end?

Accountability vs. Trust

May 31, 2008 by admin

A working session to review the Coalition's draft publication, "A National Blueprint for Emergency Preparedness, Relief and Recovery for Artists," and other Coalition works in progress. Also, discussion of a draft plan to give grantmakers better resources for learning about emergency readiness, response, and recovery, and to improve and coordinate safety nets for artists during regional or national emergencies.

Cornelia Carey, Craft Emergency Relief Fund (moderator); Carolyn Somers, Joan Mitchell Foundation (interlocutor).

Endowments and Arts Organizations

May 31, 2008 by admin

A discussion of “The Grasshopper or the Ant: A Review of Endowment Giving Policy Options,” a paper by Russell Willis Taylor that challenges assumptions, examines costs and benefits of raising and managing an endowment, and considers the capacity and expertise needed to do it well.

Russell Willis Taylor, National Arts Strategies (presenter, moderator); Ben Cameron, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; Gene Lesser, Hans G. and Thordis W. Burkhardt Foundation; Gayle Morgan, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust (interlocutors).

May 31, 2008 by admin

Is a trend developing that favors drawing foundation leaders from the for-profit sector rather than from philanthropy or the nonprofit sector? If so, does it change senior grantmaking staff's challenges and opportunities? Would a more corporate view of private philanthropy affect how foundations view the arts?

Evaluation. Good to Great.

May 31, 2008 by admin

When assessing the results of the work of arts organizations, do we measure the right things? Can we measure whether the art itself is good? This continues a dialogue that began in GIA Reader, Vol. 17, No. 3.

Bruce Sievers, Skirball Foundation; Diane Ragsdale, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (co-presenters, moderators); Suzanne Callahan, Dance USA (interlocutor).

May 31, 2008 by admin

A conversation between essayist John Rockwell and Linda Breneman (Breneman Jaech Foundation) about cultural patronage today, from the perspectives of a journalist and an individual donor. Funders with varying relationships to living patrons, donors' estates, and philanthropic institutions chime in on how risky, enduring art is—or might be—supported.

Leadership Transition

May 31, 2008 by admin

Are we helping nonprofits prepare themselves for the challenges of future leadership transition?

Jennifer Hill, Ruth Mott Foundation (moderator); Lauren Renee Hayes, Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund; Lisa Mount, Alternate ROOTS (interlocutors).

On the Road in New Mexico

May 31, 2008 by admin

As the wagons went forward and the sun sank lower, a sweep of red carnelian-coloured hills lying at the foot of the mountains came into view; they curved like two arms about a depression in the plain; and in that depression was Santa Fe, at last!

Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop

The Arts & Education Weekend

May 31, 2008 by admin

Arts and education grantmakers at an historic gathering in Santa Fe in October of 2007 agreed on the need to forge a new vision for public education in the United States and to collectively explore how the arts can help shape and realize that vision.

Convened by Grantmakers in the Arts and Grantmakers for Education, more than 100 foundation representatives met formally for the first time under the aegis of their two affinity organizations to debate and discuss the role of the arts in education.

May 31, 2008 by admin

Crossing Borders and Boundaries was the theme of the GFE Conference in 2007, and shortly after the GFE and GIA conferences and the Arts and Education Weekend, I left for a trip to Asia including visits to Thailand, Cambodia, and Hong Kong. The GFE conference underscored the fact that one of the most important skills needed now is to be globally literate, which is pretty much being neglected in schools at the moment.