Call for Nominations: GIA Board of Directors

Grantmakers in the Arts is seeking candidates to serve on our board of directors. Board members attend meetings three times per year, in addition to the annual conference, and are active in developing policies and guiding programs, recruiting members, and when appropriate, raising funds that support GIA’s service to the field. This year, two to four new members will be recommended to the GIA membership for election. New board members will serve a three year term beginning January 1, 2019 and can serve two terms. The deadline for nominations is Monday, June 4, 2018.

To access the nomination form, log in to your GIA Account and click on Board Nomination Form on the left sidebar of the account page. If you have not yet created an online account, create an account here. If you forgot your password, request a new password here. For additional assistance, please contact sylvia@giarts.org.

“Leveraging the Every Student Succeeds Act to Advocate for the Arts” Webinar

As the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) rolls out in states, arts funders have a unique opportunity to respond and support arts advocacy efforts. In this webinar, we feature Jane Best, director of the Arts Education Partnership (AEP) at the Education Commission of the States in Denver, CO. Best will provide an overview of ESSA and the value it brings to states via a case study on her advocacy work in partnership with the California Alliance for Arts Education (CAAE). Joe Landon, CAAE executive director, and Title I Program Director Laura Smyth will speak to the positive impact of arts education advocacy on their Title I initiative. Join us for this deep dive and learn what you can do to support advocacy efforts in arts education.

“Leveraging the Every Student Succeeds Act to Advocate for the Arts” will be held on Tuesday, May 29, at 2:00pm EDT / 11:00am PDT. Details and registration available here.

A Collaborative Webinar: “Impact investing in the creative economy”

Arts and cultural production represents 4.2 percent of the United States economy, or $760 billion, and socially responsible investing has reached $8.7 trillion. However, impact investing in arts and culture, nationally, is 0%. This presents a unique opportunity. As we see foundations increasingly align their investing with their missions, as Nathan Cummings Foundation recently announced, impact investing in the creative economy is a way to ensure increased support for arts and culture and the communities they serve.

Hosted by Foundation Center, this webinar — examining mission-related investment (MRI) strategies within foundations — features:

• Laura Callanan, founding partner of Upstart Co-Lab
• Eddie Torres, president & CEO of Grantmakers in the Arts
• Ellen Friedman, executive director at the Compton Foundation
• Gary Steuer, president & CEO of Bonfils-Stanton Foundation

They will address how MRIs have the potential to advance their organizational missions and work toward a creative economy that is sustainable, equitable, and inclusive—before it’s too late. The discussion will also explore impact investing as an innovative opportunity to invest in the arts and unlock resources specifically for ALAANA communities.

“Impact Investing in the Creative Economy” will be held on Thursday, May 31, at 2:00pm EDT / 11:00am PDT. Details and registration available here.

Evaluating a Decade of Arts Education Grantmaking

“What was the original goal of the arts education policy and advocacy grantmaking work?” That is one of the questions the education and policy firm, Education First, tackled after the Hewlett Foundation commissioned an evaluation of its arts education grantmaking over the past decade…

Open Society Foundations Honors Artists Working Creatively in Public Space

The Open Society Foundations recently awarded the first recipients of the Soros Arts Fellowship, an initiative to support artists confronting threats to open society through the use of public space. The eight fellows, from seven different countries, will each receive $80,000 to work on a socially engaged art project…

New Research Delves into Racial Equity and Arts Funding in Greater Pittsburgh

The newly released report Racial Equity and Arts Funding in Greater Pittsburgh is “an effort to uncover the facts of how arts funding has been and is distributed by race,” according to Mitch Swain, Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council CEO…

The Vital Role Held by Cultural Critics of Color

The deep conversations on race and some of the written pieces the movie Black Panther has inspired set the stage for an article in Hyperallergic that explores why cultural critics of color can help elevate and amplify significant cultural debates to better understand them or, at least, discover them through a different light…