Grantmakers in the Arts

(1-12-2011) The National Endowment for the Arts announced today 15 not-for-profit organizations will receive grants totaling $250,000 to bring outstanding jazz musicians, writers, producers, and scholars to communities across the nation through NEA Jazz Masters Live. In cooperation with Arts Midwest, these NEA Jazz Masters Live grants support performance and educational activities featuring NEA Jazz Masters, recipients of the nation’s highest honor in jazz.

(1-11-2011) András Szántó identifies artist-endowed foundations as the "sleeping giant of philanthropy" in an Art Newspaper article inspired by the findings of The Aspen Institute's recent two-volume report The Artist as Philanthropist: Strengthening the Next Generation of Artist-Endowed Foundations.

(1-10-2011) A program of the Jerome Robbins Foundation, New Essential Works was created in fall of 2009 as a response to the financial crisis and the prospect of "a lost period of choreography." Frequently partnering with performance centers, the Foundation awards grants from $10,000 to $35,000 to choreographers. There are no grant applications and specific works-in-progress are not required. Instead, foundation staff, sometimes in collaboration with the partner organizations, select individuals according to artistic merit and relevance.

(1-10-2011) A member emailed me recently and asked, “What do you know about state arts agencies privatizing? Our governor might eliminate our state agency and…”

(1-7-2011) On The Guardian theater blog, Andrew Haydon outlines recent government actions against productions and organizations in Hungary, Belarus, and Iraq, positing that the severity of the measures indicate that theater may, in fact, have world-changing capabilities.

(1-6-2011) Powerful Partnerships: Sustaining Arts Education Through Collaboration is a hands-on workshop designed and facilitated by John McCann, Partners in Performance, and presented by the National Guild for Community Arts Education. It will be presented January 18 and 19 at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City.

(1-4-2011) In a fascinating article for The Atlantic, Chrystia Freeland describes an increasingly stratified global economy and the position of the "new global elite," a plutocracy of super-rich who wield largely unprecedented power:

(12-30-2010) Foundation Yearbook: Facts and Figures on Private and Community Foundations, 2010 Edition, provides an overview of the state of foundation giving in the current year and beyond, comparisons of foundation activities by foundation size, and breakdowns of foundation resources by geographic location and grantmaker type. Foundation Yearbook is part of the Foundations Today Series of annual research reports on foundation growth and trends in foundation giving. This edition's key findings