Introducing New GIA Staff

We are pleased to introduce you to our new membership manager.

Yessica comes to GIA from Morris Heights Health Center (MHHC) — an affordable and accessible healthcare service provider for the local community, Bronx and beyond — where she worked in development, marketing, and planning for six years under the chief planning and development officer. She has extensive experience in event planning and fundraising and was responsible for producing the MHHC Foundation’s annual gala. Prior to her work at MHHC, she held positions at the City Parks Foundation and Ballet Hispánico’s School of Dance. A Bronx native, her desire to help her community led her to the nonprofit sector. Yessica hopes to someday start her own arts and wellness center in the Bronx.

We know you will enjoy working with her as much as we do here at GIA.

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 alert

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 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 next 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.

Through a $43 million multi-year initiative, Bloomberg Philanthropies expanded its Arts Innovation and Management program to seven new cities. The program seeks to strengthen the organizational capacity and programming of more than 200 small and midsize cultural organizations…

From presidents, to directors, to curators, women have taken the torch in leadership changes at museums as a recent article in The Guardian addressed…

The National Center for Arts Research at Southern Methodist University (NCAR) has found the majority of arts and cultural organizations have “precariously low levels of working capital,” or resources available to cover day-to-day operating needs…

The World Cities Culture Forum, a coalition of 35 global cities, recently announced it will bring together cultural leaders from nine cities to take part in its first Leadership Exchange Programme…

The Trump administration’s plan to add a citizenship question on the 2020 census has raised concerns that it would prevent accurate recording and discourage noncitizens, especially immigrants without legal status, from participating…