Music

2004, 171 pages. Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Washington, DC, 20063

As grantmakers, we have choices. Finding the right tool for the job and experimenting with tools to learn the range of their usefulness is what grantmakers do.

Immigrant and refugee communities historically have played key roles in the Bay Area's growth and rich diversity. As California enters the twenty-first century, demographic figures reflect significant increases in immigrant pop-ulations. Amongst these communities are myriad performance ensembles, in-dividual artists, teachers, and participatory arts events that strengthen comm-unity ties, reinforce a vibrant cultural heritage, and enrich the lives of Bay Area residents.

Emily Dickinson couldn't have found a more perfect way to describe how so many artists and artist advocates approach the world.¹  It is tempting to give ourselves over to the rare work that fires our inspiration, and shut the door on everything else. It is often only in nurturing isolation and fringe communities that new ideas find their full flower. But there is a danger in the isolation.

The full text of this article is not yet available on this site. Below is a brief excerpt.

Three briefings for funders on electronic media policy were held January—March 2005, organized by Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media, hosted by the Ford Foundation, and co-sponsored by other interested parties, including Grantmakers in the Arts. The first session, “Securing Our Rights to Public Knowledge, Creativity, and Freedom of Expression,” was reported on by Helen Brunner in the spring 2005 Reader. (Please note that web addresses for most of the organizations mentioned are listed at the end of this article.)

“What the FCC Is Going On?”

Lawrence Lessig sees Big Media waging war against culture in America. And he, for one, is fighting the battle. A professor at Stanford Law School, Lessig achieved notoriety when he represented web site operator Eric Eldred in the ground-breaking case Eldred v. Ashcroft, a challenge to the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. Eric Eldred was a man who wanted to build a library of derivative versions of public domain books (e.g., Hawthorne's A Scarlet Letter) and make them available for free on the Internet.

2005, 48 pages. Published by American Public Media, 45 East 7th Street, Saint Paul, MN, 55101, 651-290-1225, www.classicalmusicinitiative.org

The second in a series of Working Papers, this report contains ideas and tips for partnering with local public radio stations and national distributors, information on funding resources, rights and clearances, Web initiatives, and audience research.

2005, 136 pages, ISBN 0-9514763-6-X. Centre for Creative Communities, 118 Commercial Street, London, E1 6NF, UK, 44-(0)-20-7247-5385, www.creativecommunities.org.uk

2005, 256 pages, ISBN 0-252-07208-1. University of Illinois Press, 1325 Oak Street, Champaign, IL, 68120-6903, 217-244-4689, www.press.uillinois.edu

In the author's own words, "This book is a report card on American Culture. Not the culture of Wal-Mart and the cineplex, but culture as it is lived closer to the ground, local culture, neighborhood culture... It is about dancing, not about watching somebody else dance on television. There is a big difference."