Grantmakers in the Arts

Responding to: How can cultural grantmaking interrupt institutional and structural racism while building a more just funding ecosystem that prioritizes Black communities, organizations, and artists?
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In William Faulkner’s novel, As I Lay Dying, a young character by the name of Vardaman is allowed to believe that his “mother is a fish,” because no one takes the time to tell him that his mother is dead. Instead he associates what he witnesses with the reality he understands within a highly dysfunctional family. In the novel, he repeats, “fish. fish. fish.” Similarly, I would offer that we are currently operating in a highly dysfunctional philanthropic family. I believe in the potential of our work. I am invigorated working with my colleagues at The Heinz Endowments, and I cherish the etymology of the term “philanthropy.” So, it is only with love I offer that equity is dead.

Responding to: How can cultural grantmaking interrupt institutional and structural racism while building a more just funding ecosystem that prioritizes Black communities, organizations, and artists?
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Cultural grantmaking changing to support Black artists and cultural communities comprises three elements: healing, community, and connection.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced recently the award of 15 emergency grants totaling $1.5 million for providers of higher education in prison.

Responding to: How can cultural grantmaking interrupt institutional and structural racism while building a more just funding ecosystem that prioritizes Black communities, organizations, and artists?
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The change I would like to see in cultural grantmaking is a values shift. As we seek to support Black artists and communities in the future, we must recognize the system operating today which heavily invests in large, white institutions, and centers around and funds organizations and programs rather than people.

"Imagine what could be accomplished if the city of Boston and any of the 26 Massachusetts Gateway Cities reinvested the millions of dollars now spent policing schools—often with questionable results—in arts instruction!" write Barbara Wallace Grossman and Jonathan C. Rappaport, in a recent post.

By Gonzalo Casals

In July, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs released a survey on the financial impact of COVID-19, capturing responses from 800 cultural nonprofits at the height of the public health crisis in New York, and the anxiety and uncertainty surrounding it.

The Howard Gilman Foundation Board of Trustees recently approved an increase from a 5% to a 7.5% payout for the Foundation’s 2020 grants budget, bringing the total of that budget to $34.5M, according to the press release.

The National Endowment for the Arts and Education Commission of the States released a group of resources as part of an initiative to help stakeholders in the arts extract, analyze, and report on data about arts education.