Grantmakers in the Arts

Mimi Levitt, a respected patron of the arts and historic conservation, died on January 6 of natural causes at her home in New York. Levitt believed in the arts as a source for positive social change and left a lasting legacy of generosity and service to the causes she supported, informed the Levitt Foundation. She was 97.

"We’re creative, we’re affordable, and you can help us stay that way." That is Des Moines' pitch to artists as Iowa's capital grows, according to an article in City Lab.

A new report by the Education Commission of the States delves into education policy areas where arts in education leaders and stakeholders can expand opportunities to engage the arts in policy solutions.

As we welcome 2019, ideas around a more just and fair philanthropic field are inevitable. Dana Kawaoka-Chen, executive director for Justice Funders, says "we need a just transition in philanthropy that redistributes wealth, democratizes power, and shifts economic control to communities. In other words, we must transform our relationship to capital and to our communities."

More foundations are choosing to operate within a limited lifespan. For The Atlantic Philanthropies, "the commitment in 2002 to close its doors by 2020 reflected founder Chuck Feeney’s Giving While Living approach to philanthropy and his desire for the foundation’s funds to achieve maximum impact within that time frame and beyond."

The Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI)'s AmbitioUS is an initiative designed to act as an experimental arm of the artist-support sector.

The Orontes Guitar Quartet are the first group to be brought together in a safe country, in this case, Canada, by the Artist Protection Fund (APF), the New York-based program that supports threatened artists around the world, reported The Globe and Mail.

A recent news article by Next City showcases the power of investing in the creative economy, focusing on Manhattan's La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club and its capital campaign.