Grantmakers in the Arts

Lara Davis: GIA 2015 Conference, Day 1

October 20, 2015 by Steve

GIA conference blogger Lara Davis checks in after her first day of the GIA 2015 Conference in Los Angeles:

Day 1 of the main conference has been pretty spectacular. The opening plenary inspired with three local artist presentations centering cultural organizing, innovation, and love. The sessions themselves were brilliant – a confluence of ideas and grappling with critical issues that the philanthropic community must consider, unpack and engage through action and accountability. In particular, the session on Cultural Equity and Public Funding framed the evolving work of funding agencies amidst changing demographics in the US. These changes reflect impacts on housing, law enforcement, education, and even electoral politics – all compounded by economic gaps impacting communities of color. This is an environment, which calls the field to task, to position arts and culture as a space of creativity and possibility through problem-solving, collaboration, and community leadership.

October 19, 2015 by Steve

GIA has a pair of bloggers reporting from the Los Angeles conference. Barry Hessenius has turned in his first post with some consideration of the themes that the conference is putting forth:

It will be interesting — to me — to try to get a handle on where the funding people’s thinking is at this juncture on the financial picture and the equity equation. Most of the other issues we face are arguably offshoots of these two elephants in the room. Every funder has different priorities and ranks differently the challenges out there. There are geographic territories where the equity issue isn’t as front burner as it is elsewhere; there are communities where survivability is still manageable, relatively speaking, and communities where the available resources are increasingly obviously inadequate to do much of anything about those organizations that are living still on borrowed time. No one segment of any field agrees on everything, including the nonprofit arts sector. But over the last five years, there has been remarkable consensus on what is critical, and even on some of the nuts and bolts of how to approach these issues. More over the next three days.

October 19, 2015 by Steve

The GIA 2015 Conference is underway in Los Angeles. We have a pair of bloggers reporting on the proceedings. The initial post from Lara Davis, Seattle Office of Arts and Culture, covers the Investing in Filmmakers: Arts and Media preconference on Sunday:

Documentary filmmakers pursue diverse support, pulling together resources from many supporters, as the level of funding needed to bring projects to fruition is greater than any one grant they may be able to garner (notwithstanding the already limited funding for film from the philanthropic field). Additionally, budgeting and timing for projects vary. Cori Shepherd Stern, producer of Bend the Arc – which centers on global health equity and was eleven years in the making (five just to secure the rights) – puts it this way, “Some stories can happen quickly. Some are about a deep personal relationship over time, which takes more time to develop and bring to fruition.” Cara Mertes (Ford Foundation, JustFilms) posed this response to the funders in the room, “What are the places where you can leverage effectiveness at various points across an endeavor vis a vis this process of storytelling, when it can take years to complete a project?”

October 14, 2015 by SuJ'n

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced today that Jax Deluca will join the NEA as the director of media arts beginning on January 11, 2016. Deluca will manage NEA grantmaking in media arts and represent the agency to the media arts field. Deluca joins the NEA after her tenure as executive director of Squeaky Wheel Film & Media Art Center in Buffalo, NY, a nonprofit serving western New York state which promotes innovation in media arts through access, education, and exhibition. At Squeaky Wheel, Deluca has overseen major expansion efforts, including fundraising, new jobs and media equipment, an updated youth media arts curriculum, and relocation into new, upgraded facilities.

Read the full announcement.

October 14, 2015 by SuJ'n in Arts Education

Theatre Forward released a report, "Unmasking Business Success: Executive Perceptions of Arts Engagement and Workforce Skills." The research commissioned from Shugoll Research found that executives believe there is a strong link between an person's exposure to arts education and their potential for professional success.

October 12, 2015 by Steve

Grantmakers in the Arts is cited regarding racial equity in arts philanthropy in this article by Mike Boehm at the Los Angeles Times:

A new national study paints a bleak economic picture of African American and Latino nonprofit museums and performing arts companies and suggests that donors may have to let weaker organizations wither so that the strongest ones can grow. Funders may need to support “a limited number of organizations,” says the report by the University of Maryland’s DeVos Institute of Arts Management, “with larger grants to a smaller cohort that can manage themselves effectively, make the best art, and have the biggest impact on their communities.”

October 8, 2015 by SuJ'n in Emergency Readiness, Response, and Recovery

The National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response has recently updated the Essential Guidelines for Arts Responders Organizing in the Aftermath of Disaster: How to Help and Support your Local Artists, Arts-related Small Businesses, and Arts Organizations. This is a primer for state and local arts councils, arts service organizations, community foundations, and other non-profit groups to effectively assist artists and arts organizations impacted by Hurricane Joaquin and other disasters across the country.

October 5, 2015 by Steve

MK Wegmann has announced that she will retire from her position as President and CEO of the National Performance Network, one she has held for 15 years. The NPN board of directors have launched a national search process to have a new President/CEO in place July 1, 2016.

Read the full announcement.

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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