Grantmakers in the Arts

(9-8-10) Death and the Powers, the opera by MIT composer Tod Machover, that was previewed at GIA's 2006 conference in Boston, opens September 25 al l'Opera de Monte Carlo.

The Nathan Cummings Foundation has named Maurine D. Knighton as Program Director for the foundation's Arts & Culture Program.

For the past 6 years, Ms. Knighton has served as Senior Vice President at the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone where she developed, structured, managed and successfully refined the $40 million Cultural Industry Investment Fund portfolio. She introduced approaches and programs to leverage arts and culture that stimulated local economic revitalization. This appointment is a reflection of our strong commitment to social justice in the arts.

The Pabst Charitable Foundation has published its September 2010 Newsletter. Articles include a feature on the Orlando Symphony's Zora Neale Hurston Legacy Concert and an interview with Cornell Fine Arts Museum Director Scott Habes.

Download the Newsletter.

(9-7-10) "Labor Day has come and gone again with all its incongruities. It is a day when we celebrate laborers and the work ethic... by taking a day off. It's a national day of leisure where we heap well-deserved praise on workers, many of them working all around us, many of them right there working to help us enjoy this very national holiday."

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(9-3-10) A proclamation from Gov. Mark Parkinson has paved the way for the second week in September to be recognized as Arts in Education Week in Kansas, the Kansas Arts Commission announced Tuesday.

“Arts Education Week (Sept. 12-18) recognizes the importance of the arts in Kansas schools and in communities,” said John Divine, Chairman of the Kansas Arts Commission.

Read more.

(9-3-10) Rocco Landesman just returned from a trip to Minneapolis and St. Paul, where he spent two days touring arts spaces and cultural facilities. Earlier this week, he blogged about the experience, highlighting places and projects with progressive business models and tangible community impact. Read his full report here and learn about the work of his several enterprising hosts, including GIA board president Vickie Benson.

(9-2-10) Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, today announced the 2010 NEA New Play Development Program’s Distinguished New Play grants. Five theaters will each receive a grant of $20,000 to support the early stages of development for a new play with strong potential to merit a full production:

(9-1-10) In an opinion piece for USA Today, Abigail Disney, great-niece of Walt, argues for the preservation of the estate tax, citing both financial and social benefits, including this statement on the charitable impulse:

...the estate tax incentivizes people like me to do good with our wealth because there is no estate tax on donations to charity.