The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has announced the appointment of Maurine Knighton as the new program director of the foundation’s Performing Arts Program. Knighton currently is senior vice president at the Nathan Cummings Foundation as well as a member of the Grantmakers in the Arts Board of Directors. She joined Cummings five years ago as the Arts and Culture Program Director, building and expanding on NCF’s track record and commitment to work in the arts funding sector. “NCF is a stronger foundation than when she first began, and we are grateful for her wisdom and generosity over the years,” said Sharon Alpert, President & CEO of the Nathan Cummings Foundation. “Maurine will be with us until March 11, 2015 and we plan to use every minute to soak up her wise counsel.”
Grantmakers in the Arts
February 19, 2016 by Steve
February 18, 2016 by Steve
By Howard Reich, writing for the Chicago Tribune:
A cash infusion of more than $6 million is heading to Chicago’s arts community. For the first time, the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will direct all of its MacArthur Awards for Creative & Effective Institutions to the city’s arts organizations. The awards, established in 2006, previously have gone to institutions around the globe covering a wide array of disciplines. This time, grants ranging from $200,000 to $1 million each will be given to 14 Chicago arts groups in jazz, theater, film, dance, opera, visual art and more.
February 17, 2016 by Steve
From J. Kelly Nestruck, writing for The Globe and Mail:
The Canada Council for the Arts is getting a new funding model in April of 2017 a total rethink of the Ottawa-based granting council that reduces its number of programs from 148 to a streamlined six. As details of this shift have started to emerge in recent weeks, however, the most striking change may be the direct tying of diversity to funding for large arts organizations for the first time since the Canada Council was established in 1957. It’s not just the diversity of art and artists that will come under scrutiny in the future at institutions with revenue of more than $2-million.
February 17, 2016 by Steve
From Tom Mayhall Rastrelli, writing for the Statesman Journal:
Oregonians donated a record $4.56 million to the Oregon Cultural Trust in 2015. This is a 5.4 percent increase from the $4.331 million raised in 2014 and the largest annual increase in giving since the Great Recession. “This is a powerful vote of support for culture,” Brian Rogers, the trust’s executive director, said. “Every donation we receive is an Oregonian saying ‘Culture is important.’” The trust will distribute up to 60 percent of the donations by way of grants to more than 1,400 of Oregon’s cultural nonprofits. The remaining 40 percent will be placed in a fund currently valued at just more than $26 million. Before the passage of Senate Bill 441 in 2015, the trust could only distribute up to 42 percent of the funds raised.
February 17, 2016 by Steve
From the National Endowment for the Arts:
Today’s creative economy gets a big boost from the arts, according to new data from the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The latest figures cover 1998 to 2013 and they spotlight fast-growing arts industries, export trends, employment figures, consumer data, and more. In 2013, arts and cultural production contributed $704.2 billion to the U.S. economy, a 32.5 percent increase since 1998. Another key finding is that consumer spending on the performing arts grew 10 percent annually over the 15-year period. The Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (ACPSA) is the first federal effort to provide in-depth analysis of the arts and cultural sector's contributions to the economy.
February 12, 2016 by Steve
The Aspen Institute Artist-Endowed Foundations Initiative (AEFI) has announced the launch of a professional development program, the Seminar on Strategy for New Artist-Endowed Foundation Leaders that responds to the demand for professional development opportunities among new leaders entering this growing field. The 2016 Seminar will take place the week of June 6–10 in New York City.
February 12, 2016 by Steve
From E. San San Wong, Senior Program Officer at the Barr Foundation:
Three years ago, during the Boston mayoral race, artists, arts organizations, and engaged allies mobilized, lifted their voices, and called for greater support for the creative sector. This set the stage for Mayor Walsh to appoint Boston’s first cabinet-level arts chief in decades and to invite thousands of Bostonians to chart an inspirational course for their city through Boston Creates. Additionally, over these years, through the Barr-Klarman Arts Capacity Building Initiative, a cohort of arts and culture organizations have grown stronger and better capitalized to take artistic and organizational risks.