Grantmakers in the Arts

An interesting and critical eye on philanthropy can come from different perspectives and that is what “Liberate Philanthropy,” a blog series, published on Medium, precisely does.

Americans continue to be highly engaged in the arts and believe the arts promote personal well-being, that they help us understand other cultures, that they are essential to a well-rounded education, and that government has an important role in funding the arts, according to Americans Speak Out About the Arts in 2018, a research Americans for the Arts recently released.

Artist Titus Kaphar; Wu Tsang, filmmaker and performance artist; Becca Heller, human rights lawyer; William Barber Jr., pastor and activist, and Vijay Gupta, violinist and social-justice advocate, are among the 2018 MacArthur Foundation's 'Genius' fellows.

After a yearlong process of introspection and conversations with grantee partners, the Surdna Foundation recently announced its refined program strategy, "Radical Imagination for Racial Justice."

The Rockefeller Foundation views impact investing as a core aspect of its strategy. Describing the concept as "investments made with the intention of generating both financial return and social and/or environmental impact," Saadia Madsbjerg, managing director of The Rockefeller Foundation, wrote: "We see traditional asset managers as bringing to the table something the traditional impact investing community has thus far lacked: scale."

A discussion tool to encourage racial equity in the review and selection process of artists and arts organizations was recently launched to interrogate and apply a racial equity lens to every step of the grantmaking process.

For the month of October, GIA’s photo banner features work supported by Akonadi Foundation.

Founded in 2000, Akonadi Foundation is an Oakland based family foundation that invests in place-based organizing, racial equity policy advocacy, and culture shift to dismantle structural racism and build community power. A large part of Akonadi Foundation’s work focuses on the intersection of culture and racial justice.

Northwestern University performance studies professor and department chair Ramón H. Rivera-Servera initiated an outreach initiative, with the support of The Andrew Mellon Foundation, to assist Puerto Rican artists in the aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria.