Grantmakers in the Arts

Boston Announces New 'Boston Creates' 10-Year Cultural Plan

June 17, 2016 by Monica

Boston has announced its new Boston Creates ten-year cultural plan, which includes over one million dollars in new arts funding.

From Malcolm Gay, writing for the Boston Globe:

Initiatives include a program linking public art to new city construction and infrastructure projects, a plan to provide affordable housing to artists, a pilot program to make new rehearsal spaces available to performers, and a collaboration with the Museum of Fine Arts to conserve city-owned artworks. Meanwhile the Boston Foundation, in conjunction with the Barr Foundation, is set to establish a pooled fund providing grants to small theater and dance troupes.

June 16, 2016 by Monica

After nearly 12 years at the helm, Judith Rodin, the first female president of The Rockefeller Foundation, has announced her decision to depart the institution once a new president is identified and takes office. Rodin’s leadership ushered The Rockefeller Foundation into a new era of strategic philanthropy that emphasized partnerships with business, government, and the philanthropic community to address and solve for the complex challenges of the 21st century.

June 15, 2016 by Monica

From The NonProfit Times:

Arts and cultural organizations struggle to survive. Even as they try to ennoble or enlighten the world, leaders sometimes wonder if it is possible to reconcile two endeavors that appear incompatible.

During the Association of Fundraising Professionals International Fundraising Conference, Janet Brown of Grantmakers in the Arts and Brian Bonde of Advanced Certified Fundraising offered five suggestions for cultural organizations to help them find financial success, not just security, as they continue their operations.

June 15, 2016 by Monica

In a recent blog post from Fractured Atlas, Jason Tseng reflects on how organizations can follow up their racial equity statements with action:

And as organizations like AFTA and GIA have already acknowledged in their statements, ours is a sector that is built on decades of exclusionary practices and reproduces institutionalized oppression. But if we are truly looking forward to the changing demographics of our nation, as AFTA’s cultural equity statement suggests, we must also adapt our platform to reflect the issues that will foster the arts sector of tomorrow.

June 13, 2016 by Monica

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has published a literature review entitled "Arts-Based Programs and Arts Therapies for At-Risk, Justice-Involved, and Traumatized Youths." The report, conducted with assistance from the National Endowment for the Arts, explores recent research on arts-based programs and arts therapies. Programs were considered arts-based if at least one of the main components was an arts-related activity, or if there was a deliberate use of arts in the program to bring about a change in behavior.

June 10, 2016 by Monica

International artist residency network Alliance of Artists Communities has named Lisa Hoffman as its next executive director, effective July 2016. Hoffman succeeds former Executive Director Caitlin Strokosch, who led the Alliance for nearly a decade. As the associate director at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation, Hoffman pioneered internationally recognized models of artist-led community engagement. Prior to McColl, Hoffman served as director of the Charlotte Nature Museum.

June 9, 2016 by Monica

From Julie Carpenter, writing for Soapbox:

ArtsWave [Cincinnati's local arts agency] has created a first-in-the-nation model with the new Arts Atlas online tool that integrates data on arts organizations and their programming with community demographic data.

“Arts Atlas evolved from the need for a place to collect and analyze data while also understanding the gap in access to the arts around the region,” [says ArtsWave Chief Impact Strategy Officer Tara Townsend].

June 9, 2016 by Monica

In a recent blog post on Creativz.us, artist Caroline Woolard describes the decline of affordable creative spaces and what artists can do to advocate for their needs:

I’ve seen how sharing economy platforms build resilience and mutual aid (for those of us on the privileged side of the digital divide). I’ve also seen that online platforms are not enough. We need affordable space, so that we can take risks and fail. And where will we meet to swap or share goods and services without spaces? Ensuring affordable space is the only way creative innovation can occur.

Explore Solidarity Economy resources here

Future of the Field: Cross-Sector Creative Placemaking Series

Video from the GIA 2021 Conference are now available for streaming.

The Racial Equity Coding Project: Unpacking The “Why”

In this first of a three-part discussion, we are joined by Susan Feder, Adam Fong, and Maurine Knighton, as they discuss the Racial Equity Coding Project, why it was started, their experience with the earliest iterations of the coding measures, and how their reflections will inform steps forward.

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