Grantmakers in the Arts

ArtPlace America Releases Field Scans on Public Safety, Housing

April 19, 2016 by Monica

ArtPlace America has released its first two “field scan” documents looking at the intersection of the arts and culture with other sectors of community development. The first two reports examine public safety and affordable housing. Each represents an exploratory first step that aims to surface:

Key goals or needs in that community development sector that arts and culture might address,
A typology or framework for understanding the ways that arts and culture has and might partner with that community development sector,
Barriers to integrating arts and culture within that community development sector, and
Strategies or tactics to advance collaborations with arts and culture in that sector.

April 19, 2016 by Monica

From The Nathan Cummings Foundation:

The Nathan Cummings Foundation today announced that Loren S. Harris, a philanthropic leader with more than 20 years experience challenging structural barriers to equality and creating economic opportunity and social inclusion, will join the Foundation as Vice President of Programs. Harris, who will begin work on May 18, will report to the Foundation’s President and CEO, Sharon Alpert.

April 19, 2016 by Monica

By Serge F. Kovaleski, writing for The New York Times:

The Ford Foundation, other philanthropic groups and some private donors have given nearly $20 million to United States Artists, an organization that makes grants to artists. … The money will serve as an operational endowment to support United States Artists’ staffing, conferences and the cultivation of nominators and the administration of grants, among other things. It will cover everything except the grants to artists themselves, which are financed separately.

April 15, 2016 by Monica

In an article published on Creativz.us, Carlton Turner, executive director of Alternate ROOTS, advocates for an alternative model of arts leadership development for organizations that serve communities of color. He argues that a top-down, “one-size-fits-all leadership development program” does not meet the unique needs of these communities and offers the Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI) as an example of a community-generated peer learning approach.

April 14, 2016 by Steve

In Crowdsourcing Cultural Policy: The U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, Arlene Goldbard explores the mission of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, which is not a government agency, but an action network of artists and cultural workers mobilizing creativity in the service of positive social change.

April 13, 2016 by Monica

A new organization called Upstart Co-Lab aims to increase opportunities for artists as innovators, catalyze more capital for creativity, and enable artists to support themselves sustainably.

From the press release:

Rooted in the conviction that artists are social entrepreneurs and that a sustainable future depends on a creative economy, a group of artists, impact investors, philanthropic funders and social innovators today announced the launch of Upstart Co-Lab.

April 12, 2016 by Monica in Racial Equity

The fifth and final State of the Work report has been released by the D5 Coalition. The coalition is a five-year collaboration of foundations, donors, associations, and organizations with an aim to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in philanthropy. The final State of the Work report focuses on “stories of people in foundations who have taken action to advance [diversity, equity, and inclusion].” A separate forthcoming report will reflect on sector progress over the past five years of the coalition's work.

April 11, 2016 by Monica

In a blog post by John McGuirk, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has announced a report assessing the progress of their Performing Arts Program:

2015 marked the mid-point of our current Performing Arts strategic framework, which runs from 2012-2017, and lays out the goals of our grantmaking, as well as measures for how we’ll evaluate our progress. … A key question for us in commissioning this assessment was which geographic and demographic communities have benefitted from Hewlett Foundation support and where are the gaps?

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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