Outline of GIA’s Work in Equity, 2008–Present

GIA’s work in race and social justice began in 2008 with the creation of the Arts and Social Justice Working Group by Claudine Brown. Initially, GIA focused generally on equity across various identities which have been historically marginalized in philanthropy including race, gender, sexuality, socio-economic status. In 2011, GIA’s focus turned specifically to racial equity with a Thought Leader Forum and subsequent actions by the board of directors. At the end of 2014, the GIA Board of Directors established a racial equity board committee, which published GIA’s Racial Equity in Arts Funding Statement of Purpose in March 2015. The statement of purpose and accompanying calls to action continue to be updated regularly.

The following outline of GIA’s work is meant to provide highlights and may not be inclusive of every activity, article, session, or communication.

2021

Solidarity Economy

GIA has shared resources on the Solidarity Economy, how it advances racial equity, and how to support it. The Solidarity Economy is one that centers community ownership and democratic governance that builds political, cultural, and economic power for workers. In 2021, GIA released our commissioned report, Solidarity Not Charity: Arts & Culture Grantmaking in the Solidarity Economy, to broad national attention and influence. GIA has since partnered on Art.Coop’s Study into Action and Move the Money, a series of funder discussions in which BIPOC scholars, advocates, organizers and artists make tangible the principles laid out in the report to more directly influence change in grantmakers’ practices.

Arts Education Funders Coalition

In Spring 2021, GIA influenced the U.S. Department of Education to highlight the importance of equitable access to arts and culture to the process of reopening schools. GIA has successfully advocated to the U.S. Department of Education to include in its Volume 2 Roadmap to Reopening handbook guidance the importance of providing access to the arts, to make explicit how racialized this access was prior to the pandemic and that addressing this inequity is essential to effective reopening.

Annual Convening

GIA’s 2021 conference Plurality, Power, and Belonging, was entirely virtual in light of the pandemic’s surge. The conference content reflected a year’s planning by foregrounded the voices of artists, scholars, and activists in Puerto Rico, including reflections on the negative impacts of U.S. policy and of colorism.

2021 Conference Keynotes

2021 Conference Artists

Reader Articles

Racial Equity in Arts Funding Workshops

GIA adapted our Racial Equity in Arts Funding workshops for online participation, increasing participation by over 100% to 138 participants. GIA also furthered this work by co-designing with Hillombo Consulting, an advanced GIA Pro-BIPOC Arts Funding Community of Practice workshop, which guides participants through the design of experiments in pro-BIPOC arts grantmaking.

President’s Blog

Webinars

Podcasts

2020

GIA responded to the events of 2020 by sharing information while continuing to foreground our values.

COVID-19 Info Hub and Resource Page

In 2020 Grantmakers in the Arts doubled our programming to include the COVID-19 Info Hub and Resource Page including original webinars, podcasts and blogs featuring information and first-person reportage on how arts grantmakers are pivoting to support their cultural communities, presenting each through the lens of racial and intersectional equity.

Black Arts & Cultural Funding and Justice Series

Beginning with a collectively written statement from the GIA team on the killing of George Floyd and the ongoing terror of structural racism, GIA compiled a Black Arts & Cultural Funding and Justice Resource Hub, which aims to amplify funds and resources that explicitly center Black artists, cultural communities, and experiences. Additionally, we borrow a lens from the BIPOC project that centers Black and Indigenous folks - whose experiences shape relationships for all ALAANA/POC people’s relationships with white supremacy culture – as another dimension of resource and financial investment intended to realize justice. The hub was curated with the intention of identifying and amplifying funds and resources that support Black artists, culture, and communities.

Additionally, as part of an inaugural Black Philanthropy Month Blog Series during August, GIA featured weekly blogs from Black cultural funders responding to the question: How can cultural grantmaking interrupt institutional and structural racism while building a more just funding ecosystem that prioritizes Black communities, organizations, and artists?

Annual convening

The 2020 GIA Virtual Convening, GIA’s first online convening, offered our nation’s arts grantmaking field the chance to reflect on the challenges the cultural ecosystem faces – rooted in systemic racism and amplified by the coronavirus pandemic – and imagine new systems of power and practice for a more resilient future.  Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with survey respondents showing that 97% were satisfied to very satisfied with the overall convening.

Keynotes/Artists

GIA Summits

In January 2020, GIA partnered with NYGIA to host A Trip Down Memory Lane: Activism, Culture, and the Individual Artist, an exploration of the relationship between philanthropy and funding for individual artists. Hosted by Philanthropy New York, the summit was moderated by Eddie Torres, president and CEO, GIA, and presented by Suzy Delvalle, then president and executive director, Creative Capital; Charles Rice-Gonzalez, co-founder, BAAD! Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance, visual artists Miguel Luciano and Dread Scott, and playwright Liza Jessie Peterson – an entirely BIPOC panel. This in-person event was also steamed live on Facebook.

Reader Articles

Racial Equity in Arts Funding Workshops

GIA hosted an in-person Racial Equity in Arts Funding workshop on March 9, 2020 in Boston, MA, in partnership with Philanthropy Massachusetts. The workshop was attended by 35 funders. In response to the pandemic, GIA designed the workshop curricula as a three-part series to be offered virtually starting in 2021.

Capitalization Workshops

Because it has been the norm for the nonprofit arts sector to be poorly capitalized, GIA launched the National Capitalization Project in 2010. Since then, GIA has provided Conversations on Capitalization and Community funder workshops in over 20 cities across the US. GIA has continued to work with capitalization consultancy Rebecca Thomas Associates to produce the workshops, and in 2020, also worked with cultural strategist and facilitator Sage Crump to update the workshop to reflect the financial implications of the pandemic through an explicit racial equity lens, debuting the now online workshop for South Coast Community Foundation and continuing in 2021.

President’s Blog

Webinars

Podcasts

In 2020, GIA hosted the Grantmakers in the Arts Racial Equity Podcast Series, which included:

2019

Annual Conference in Denver, Colorado

The 2019 annual conference program highlighted many examples of art at the intersection, including the work of Motus Theatre, a company that brings law-enforcement leaders on stage to read the autobiographical monologues of undocumented young adults to dispel the false associations between criminality and immigration status. The conference also featured a mix of artists, organizations, and arts supporters, including Gregg Deal, Yo-Yo Ma, Agnes Gund, and Bryan Stevenson. Revisit the Denver Conference through plenary videos on the GIA YouTube channel.

Keynotes/Artists

Reader Articles

Racial Equity in Arts Funding Workshop
GIA hosted Racial Equity in Arts Funding workshops in Seattle, WA and New Brunswick, NJ with participants joining from the region and neighboring states.

GIA compiled an overview of its racial equity work, including some of the foundational information that informs this work.

President’s Blog

Mosaic Network and Fund
GIA served as review committee members for the Mosaic Network and Fund, which grew out of the ALAANA Project. The Mosaic Network and Fund in The New York Community Trust, a collaboration between 19 foundations, recently committed $4.5 million to fund 27 arts groups that are led by, created for, and accountable to ALAANA people in New York City.

Webinars

Podcasts

2018

GIA has increasingly prioritized incorporating a racial equity lens to examine and design programming for our other core focus areas of Arts Education, Capitalization and Nonprofit Financial Health, and Support for Individual Artists. While we will continue to share highlights of our racial equity programming, we encourage readers to view all of our work with an eye toward how racial equity manifests.

In 2018, new CEO Eddie Torres began establishing GIA’s new headquarters in the South Bronx. Torres was intentional in cultivating and interviewing a diverse slate of candidates and ensured vetted job descriptions that would minimize any barriers in hiring practices, such as removing the education requirement and including a salary range. This effort to maximize reach resulted in filling five of six positions with ALAANA professionals. GIA supports the professional development and ongoing learning of its staff by providing trainings in such skills as public speaking and in the facilitation of racial justice workshops, dialogues, and discussions.

Annual Conference in Oakland, California

GIA’s annual conference was held in Oakland and had the highest rate of attendance up to that point – over 600 participants. GIA responded to a strike by the conference hotel workers by moving the conference out of the hotel and into the cultural community so that no conference participants would be required to cross a picket line compromising their values. The conference sessions were held in Oakland’s art galleries, theaters, rehearsal rooms, with the plenary sessions held in a circus tent. The GIA team made this change happen within two weeks.

GIA communicated these changes to our members in advance, receiving messages of praise for our standing by workers. By the end of the conference, our participants called it our “best conference ever.” In response to the conference survey, 99% of participants asserted that they were “satisfied” to “extremely satisfied” with the overall conference, as well as the curation of the breakout sessions. Videos from the Oakland Conference are now available at the GIA YouTube Channel.

Keynotes/Artists

Racial Equity in Arts Funding workshop
In 2018, GIA expanded the Racial Equity in Arts Funding workshop, which was piloted at the 2017 Detroit conference, and hosted it for 30 grantmakers in Cleveland. In response to the statement, “What I learned from the workshop will be useful to my work,” we had 100% agreement. Out of all workshop participants, 57% “strongly agreed” and 43% “agreed” with the statement. None disagreed.

Webinars

GIA coupled the Racial Equity in Arts Funding workshop with GIA’s most popular webinar of the year, “Real and Not Real: The history of racialization in the United States,” presented by Race Forward and GIA president Eddie Torres in August 2018. The webinar had a record-breaking 200+ registrations and continues to be watched by grantmakers and cultural organizations, nearing 500 additional views by the end of 2018, our most watched webinar. “Real and Not Real: The history of racialization in the United States,” which, at 400 views, received four times move engagement post-recording than our next most popular webinars. This webinar featured Race Forward and GIA discussing the creation and perpetuation of the racial hierarchy, and provided guidance on institutional strategies for diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice, terms often conflated as interchangeable.

President’s Blog

Reader Articles

Arts Education

2017

Board action
The GIA board voted to add a racial equity statement to the organization’s guiding principles.

The GIA board voted to hire Edwin Torres as the organization’s new president & CEO, our first ALAANA person to hold that role. The board also committed to move GIA’s office from Seattle to the South Bronx, to draw attention to often under-resourced communities of color.

Racial Equity in Arts Philanthropy workshop
Development in partnership with the Center for Social Inclusion of a day-long workshop for funders, which will be available to communities in 2018 and piloted at the 2017 GIA conference.

ALAANA Project
In partnership with Doris Duke Foundation to support creation of a pilot project with local funders and a cohort of ALAANA organizations.

Webinars

Reader Articles

2016

Audit
During the winter, GIA commissioned a research team to conduct a racial equity audit of its programs, policies, and communications. The audit findings and recommendations were delivered to and reviewed by staff and board in the spring and released publicly in September.

Board action
The racial equity board committee began developing a work plan based on audit findings and recommendations. The board subsequently released an update to its Racial Equity in Arts Philanthropy Statement of Purpose, including new recommendations to support members in engaging in racial equity work.

Research
During the summer, GIA commissioned a research team to survey GIA member organizations on their current policies and programs addressing racial equity and to identify case studies of successful programs to share with the membership.

Saint Paul Conference

Sessions

Preconferences

Keynotes/Artists

Podcasts

Web Conferences

Reader Articles

2015

Board action
In March, GIA board of directors approves the proposed Racial Equity in Arts Phianthropy Statement of Purpose and GIA promotes and distributes the statement to its members and the public. Racial equity committee vets all sessions proposed for the GIA annual conference for purposes of integrating a racial equity lens into topics. New GIA board members attend the 2-day anti-racism training with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.

Los Angeles Conference

Racial Equity Forum

  • Supporting ALAANA Organizations, June, Atlanta: Grantmakers in the Arts hosted a national dialogue for sixty participants on increasing funding and access to funding for African, Latino(a), Asian, Arab and Native American (ALAANA) organizations. It was held at the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta. Videos and text available on the forum page.

Web Conference

Reader Articles

Blogs

2014

GIA Board Action GIA board creates the Racial Equity Board Committee, chaired by Maurine Knighton to plan, recommend and oversee racial equity in arts philanthropy programs and integration of a racial equity lens into other program areas.  Proposed conference session on equity/racial equity are vetted by the Racial Equity Board Committee and recommended to the conference committee.  New board members attend 2-day anti-racism training of People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond.  Racial Equity Board Committee begins work on a statement of purpose for GIA’s work in racial equity in arts philanthropy.

Houston Conference

Thought Leader Forum

  • Constructing Racial Equity, July, New York: Participants from the 2012 Thought Leader Forum came together to share case studies from within their own organizations and to discuss next steps to the process of sharing learning with the field. Facilitated by Lori Villarosa

Reader Articles

Blogs

2013

GIA Board & Staff Workshop Understanding and Undoing Racism, July, Seattle: A two-day workshop led by The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond

GIA Board Action November: Based on recommendations from the Racial Equity Thought Leader Forum participants, the GIA board adopts the issue of constructing racial equity in arts grantmaking as “core field work”.

Philadelphia Conference

Racial Equity in Arts Philanthropy Thought Leader Forum

  • Constructing Racial Equity, December, Chicago: Participants from the 2012 Thought Leader Forum came together to share their work on racial equity within their own organizations and to discuss next steps to the process of sharing learning and best practices with the field. Facilitated by Melinda Weekes, Race Forward.

Reader Articles

Blogs

2012

Miami Conference
Preconference

Sessions

Keynotes/Artists

Thought Leader Forum

  • Understanding and Undoing Racism, June, Pittsburgh: A two-day workshop led by The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond attended by 23 social justice funders, plus GIA staff.
  • Deconstructing Racism, November, New York: Those who attended the Pittsburgh workshop were invited to debrief on their experience, identify ways to improve their own grantmaking and make recommendations to the field. Facilitated by Melinda Weekes, Race Forward.

Reader Articles

Web Conferences

Blogs

2011

San Francisco Conference

Reader Articles

Web Conferences

Blogs

2010

Chicago Conference
Preconference

Sessions

Keynotes/Artists

Reader Articles

Blogs

2009

2008