Roundtables

Getting Down to Business: Corporate Grantmakers in the Arts

What's happening in corporate grantmaking in the arts today? This session gives corporate funders the opportunity to share trends, stories, lessons, and plans for arts grantmaking in an informal setting. Topics could include changes in corporate funding priorities, trends or challenges with arts sponsorships, funding of technology in the arts, and other topics of interest to those attending.

International Cultural Engagement

Changing global demographics, the democratization of international communications through technology, and the increased movement of populations across national borders due to conflict, economic, and environmental pressures are all factors that have made cultural exchange more crucial than ever as a tool for greater mutual understanding. At the same time, the prolonged global economic slump has made access to international markets more important than ever for American artists. This session will offer grantmakers the opportunity to explore how international cultural exchange can enrich their communities and sustain artists’ livelihoods.

Building a Robust Emergency Readiness, Response & Recovery Section on the GIA Website

Last year, GIA members began to define the types of assistance, information, and tools they would need to help their community in a crisis. The National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response, with GIA’s support, is ready to build a more robust Emergency Readiness, Response & Recovery section of the GIA website. Come join a roundtable discussion hosted by the Coalition to further discuss how to make that section of the website as helpful and accessible as possible. Drawing upon some of the baseline data from last year’s GIA member survey on readiness, we will decide what information and resources should be available on the site and how members can best use the site on a regular basis, as well as in the wake of significant disasters.

Arts & Health: New Momentum for Artists and Communities

A report from the MetLife Foundation Partnership Project between Grantmakers in the Arts, Grantmakers in Aging, Grantmakers in Health, Society for the Arts in Healthcare, and the National Center for Creative Aging will be distributed and the findings discussed. Participants will take away new knowledge about the benefits and challenges of funding arts collaborations and initiatives within healing environments.

The Arts Education Field Guide

Ever wonder if your philanthropy efforts in arts education are creating impact in our complicated education ecosystem? Unsure if an investment in advocacy or policy would affect change for arts education? This breakfast conversation will focus on the complex web of partners, players, and policymakers in the ecosystem of arts education. Learn who the key players and decision makers are. Learn more about the unique role each person plays in this ecosystem. Find new allies. Understand your relationship with other stakeholders in arts education. Hear more about how all of these players interact.

Based on the newest publication from Americans for the Arts, The Arts Education Field Guide, this discussion will help program officers assess their role in strengthening arts education through their investment strategies, while providing greater insight into stakeholder motivations, and help leaders evaluate whether their efforts in broader education reform are reaching the right spheres of influence.

A Conversation about Art and Social Justice

More and more artists, practitioners, and funders are working at the nexus of cultural expressions and social action to create a more just and equitable world. For several years, an informal Art and Social Justice Working Group has worked inside and outside GIA to strengthen and explore this vital nexus. Currently, the Group is exploring new options for an effective organizational structure, discussing best practices in evaluation of art and cultural expressions aimed at advancing social justice, and working on cultural equity issues. Join Working Group members in this informal exchange to learn more about the Group’s thoughts, conversations, and actions. Bring your questions, concerns, experiences, and insights, and be ready to join in dialogue about this exciting new area of arts, culture, and social change funding.

Tools You Can Use: What SNAAP Is Telling Us About The Lives and Careers of Alumni of Intensive Arts Training

The Strategic National Art Alumni Project (SNAAP) has established itself as the definitive data source for information on the lives and careers of arts graduates, whether they become artists or pursue different paths. The Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, in collaboration with the Vanderbilt University Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, designed this unprecedented annual online survey, data management, and institutional improvement system. GIA members from the public and private sectors provided critical start-up funds, and the project is on the road to self-sufficiency. We will discuss what we have learned and what is envisioned for the future.

Leveraging the Remake: The Role of the Arts in a Shifting Economy

This session will feature a sneak peak at preliminary recommendations from the 2012 Americans for the Arts National Arts Policy Roundtable at Sundance, taking place September 27-29, 2012. Each year the roundtable convenes thirty high-level leaders from the corporate, foundation, individual philanthropy, arts, and culture communities to discuss issues of importance to the arts and society. Participants will unpack the perception of arts and artists as catalysts in creating more livable cities and stronger communities. Strategies for building stronger cross-sector understanding and collaboration, and for extending the arts value proposition between the private and public sector, will also be discussed.

Where is the funding for professional development for teaching artists?

The President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities' Reinvesting in Arts Education: Winning America’s Future through Creative Schools states, “Any significant advancement in the field will require unprecedented unity of purpose and the coordinated actions of local, state, and federal agencies, educators and professional associations, and the arts community.” One of the committee’s five recommendations for actions to be taken is to expand in-school opportunities for teaching artists. This discussion will address the funding available to “teaching artist” programs, the need for this funding, and how it can be moved to a higher position of funding importance, especially in rural communities.

Intersections of Art in Military Health, Healing, and Community

A new generation of veterans is dealing with the aftereffects of wartime experiences, and communities are coming to grips with integrating and supporting returning veterans and their families. The arts provide unique and proven opportunities within community settings that are assisting active duty military personnel, veterans, and their families—both during pre- and post-deployment and in healing. Hear about the effort to create a National Initiative for Arts & Health in the Military, along with partnerships and resources operating at this intersection of art and veterans’ needs. Discuss how the foundation community is addressing these needs and how the private sector and military can work together to address this critical issue.

What's Behind the “Buzz”? Discussing Some Criteria for Community-Based Funding

Every field has its own vocabulary. Sometimes terms can describe the same practices with different names. Sometimes those terms become “buzz” words of the moment, used with minimal understanding of their meaning. As arts funders who must gage the depth and quality of grant requests in categories like “community engagement” or “creative placemaking” or “community-based arts,” what should we look for? What criteria are meaningful? In this roundtable discussion, we will pose those questions.

ARTWorks for Kids, a Program of Hunt Alternatives Fund

We believe that the arts have the power to change lives and tackle some of society’s most stubborn problems. ARTWorks for Kids, a program of Hunt Alternatives Fund, garners sustained private and public support of arts organizations that transform the lives of kids in Eastern Massachusetts. We promote the arts in classrooms, after-school programs, and the larger community to encourage young people to stay on track.

ARTWorks for Kids is tested model that could be replicated in other communities. Please join us to learn more about the program and how it could benefit your local youth arts organizations.

Introductory Resources for Supporting Individual Artists

For those grantmakers new to supporting individual artists or for those who might like to begin supporting individual artists, this roundtable will provide specific introductory information, tools, and experience from seasoned members of the GIA Support for Individual Artists Group Committee. We will be discussing various aspects of supporting individual artists, from practical issues such as IRS requirements, to more conceptual challenges like making the case to trustees, as well as addressing any specific questions or challenges individual participants may have.

Research Roundup: The Past Informs the Future

In the Fall 2012 issue of the GIA Reader, Revisiting Research: New Perspectives on Landmark Reports, a feature section guest edited by Holly Sidford and Alexis Frasz of Helicon Collaborative, examined five landmark research reports. Some of these reports, like Gifts of the Muse, are still widely referenced but deserve a fresh look. Others, like Autopsy of an Orchestra, were published before the digital era, which is to say they are practically invisible to today’s researchers and practitioners. Each of the selected research pieces relates to an issue that is still a vital concern of philanthropy today: arts education (Champions of Change), cultural participation (Gifts of the Muse, Arts and Culture in Communities), capitalization and the nonprofit business model (Autopsy of an Orchestra), and artists and cultural workers (Crossover). This roundtable will provide an opportunity to discuss this work and suggest other past research GIA might revisit in future issues.