President’s Blog: Individual donors can create the future of the arts

In his latest blog, Eddie Torres, Grantmakers in the Arts president & CEO, addresses cultural organizations that are increasingly being called upon to refuse funding that their critics regard as ethically questionable. “We do wish to consider – and for us to collectively re-consider – the motivations that have informed cultural philanthropy,” Torres writes. Click to read it here.

From the GIA Reader

In “Allyship in Arts Grantmaking,” part of the GIA Reader (Vol 30, No 3) Fall 2019 issue, Kim Tran writes that the arts “have an equity problem” and “how grantmakers must work to interrogate what kinds of projects they find themselves drawn to funding.” Click to read the article.

“I Already Fund ALAANA Arts Organizations—Now What?” Webinar

GIA is committed to addressing structural inequities and increasing philanthropic and government support for African, Latinx, Asian, Arab, and Native American (ALAANA) artists and arts organizations. Creating racial equity statements and threading racial equity practices and policies into our work are concrete and important actions to take in order to achieve racial justice. However, there is more to it than that. Funders still need to keep the momentum going, delving more deeply into power structures, partnership, and resistance. But how?

Join us for this racial equity webinar on Tuesday, December 3, at 2pm EST/11am PST with Maurine Knighton (Doris Duke Charitable Foundation) and Lori Villarosa (Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity). In this webinar they will take us into a deep discussion on what funders can consider as they continue funding with racial equity at the forefront. Details and registration here.

In its 80 year history, Guggenheim Museum has named Ashley James as its first black curator to work at the museum full-time, ArtNews reported…

A couple of days ago, men and women marched 26 miles through New Orleans, dressed as participants from a slave rebellion that happened there two centuries ago, as The Guardian and The New York Times reported. The re-enactment, led by New York artist Dread Scott, retraced the route of one of the largest - and overlooked - slave rebellions in US history: the 1811 German Coast Uprising…