From Craig Melvin, reporting for NBC's Today, comes this story about Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program, begun in 1984 to connect students with teachers and world-renowned artists to design and paint more than 3800 murals city-wide.
Grantmakers in the Arts
June 18, 2013 by Steve
June 18, 2013 by Steve
In a historic move, the leaders of the country’s three leading sources of information on nonprofits – GuideStar, Charity Navigator, and BBB Wise Giving Alliance – penned an open letter to the donors of America denouncing the “overhead ratio” as a valid indicator of nonprofit performance.
June 17, 2013 by Steve
Hayley Roberts analyzes the University of Pennsylvania's Culture and Community Revitalization for Createquity's Arts Policy Library series.
From 2006 to 2008 SIAP’s Mark J. Stern and Susan C. Seifert researched and compiled a set of documents that sought to investigate the real impact of the “creative economy” on community and economic development. The Rockefeller Foundation funded SIAP and The Reinvestment Fund to partner and “merge cultural data with other types of information on urban revitalization.” The project’s publications included a literature review, three policy briefs, and a community investment prospectus in addition to a range of summary materials. This project led SIAP to frame its subsequent work around the concept of “natural” cultural districts, or specific geographic areas dense with cultural assets that have evolved in grassroots fashion.
June 11, 2013 by Steve
From Sandra Tan at The Buffalo News:
June 11, 2013 by Steve
From Open Culture:
How could David Byrne never have given a commencement address before? As an experienced public speaker, a well-known creator who has carved out his own cultural niche, an advocate of things (such as cycling) beloved among world-changing young people, the founder of a band with a surprising multi-generational appeal, and a man with no small command of Powerpoint, he’d seem to make an appealing choice indeed. His first commencement address ever came this year at the Columbia University School of the Arts.
June 11, 2013 by Steve
A new research resource from the National Endowment for the Arts gives statistical profiles of Americans who reported an artist occupation as their primary job, whether full-time, part-time, or self-employed. The dataset looks at artists in 11 distinct occupations, including actors; announcers; architects; art directors, fine artists, and animators; dancers and choreographers; designers; entertainers and performers; musicians; photographers; producers and directors; and writers and authors. Some tables offer data on employed artists in particular, while other tables measure all artists in the workforce, both employed and looking for work.
June 11, 2013 by Steve
Through its Bolder Advocacy initiative, Alliance for Justice seeks to promote an active role for nonprofits in influencing public policy and to help them navigate the rules. The following webinars are coming up this summer:
- June 18: Investing in Change: Foundation Support for Lobbying and Other Advocacy
- July 9: Federal Lobbying Disclosure Act Rules for Nonprofits
- July 25: Lobbying With Confidence: Legal Tips for Nonprofit Advocates
- August 22: Why Should Our Organization Open a 501(c)(4)?
June 10, 2013 by Janet
By Janet Brown from her blog Better Together
In my early years as an arts administrator, I remember thinking it was best to keep grant applications simple in order to limit the questions that granters might have. One line I always left blank was “indirect costs.” I did this because it just seemed a good idea to make the application financials less complicated. But how wrong I was.