Corporate Philanthropy

1997, 175 pages, Columbia College, 1001 Rogers Road, Columbia, Missouri 65216, Review by Gita Gulati, The Cleveland Foundation.

Rebuilding the Front Porch of America is a collection of previously presented essays by Patrick Overton, an arts administrator and community organizer in Missouri. In this short but substantive book, Overton defines community arts as “the new front porch of America,” a place where family, friends, and neighbors gather to share their stories.

Here in Los Angeles, the thought of an "arts funding community" had been something of an oxymoron. Because of corporate policy, political agendas, and familial preferences, arts grantmakers have long worked in isolation from one another. Sure, we like one another, go to the same shows, eat the same special-event salmon, but collaborate and communicate on a regular basis? Well, if only...

For four years now at the Walter and Elise Haas Fund I have been evaluating San Francisco projects in the arena of audience development. From my years as executive director of Intersection for the Arts I remember planning around percent of capacity, marketing strategies, and collaborative programming, but more than that, when I think of our audience I think about the difficult relationship between our arts organization and the street.

1999, 556 pages, Alpert Award in the Arts, 1414 Sixth Street, Santa Monica, California 90401.

"Somewhere between tête-à-tête and performance” is the way Irene Borger, program director of the CalArts/Alpert Award in the Arts, describes the interviews with twenty award recipients that are featured in this volume marking the program's fifth anniversary.

The Arts and the Public Purpose 92nd American Assembly

From May 29 through June 1 of this year, seventy-eight individuals interested in the arts in the United States came together for the 92nd American Assembly at Arden House in Harriman, New York to debate "The Arts and the Public Purpose." The American Assembly was established by Dwight D. Eisenhower at Columbia University in 1950. Each year it holds at least two nonpartisan meetings on topics related to United States policy, each of which gives rise to a book on the subject discussed.

At the 1997-98 New York Grantmakers in the Arts' program meetings, members agreed to focus on one discipline for a more in-depth look. Dance, perhaps the most beleaguered of all disciplines, was selected as the first test.

It was agreed that the goal was to raise the level of understanding of the needs and issues facing New York City's dance community. NYGIA commissioned Mindy Levine, a respected consultant who is well versed in dance and has completed studies for Dance/USA, to prepare a briefing paper: "New York City's Dance Community: Current Status and Needs."

Currently they hold almost $70 million in assets. With some luck and hard work, they hope in ten years to increase that amount ten-fold to over $750 million. They can be found east and west, north and south. They are modest and ambitious. They are large and they are small. And, most importantly, they are changing and challenging the very nature of public funding of the arts nationwide.

1999, 10 pages, Institute of Museum and Library Services, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506.

The Institute of Museum and Library Services has issued a companion piece to its 1997 publication "True Needs, True Partners: Museums and Schools Transforming Education." The earlier publication profiled fifteen successful museum education projects and suggested factors that form the foundation for successful school-museum partnerships.

During the summer of 1996, the National Association of Artists' Organizations (NAAO) conducted a series of "regional think-tank sessions" with NAAO members and their constituencies in twelve cities across the country. A concern heard throughout "A Dozen Dialogues" was the need to develop, nurture, and support artists and arts professionals who are new to the field. As an initial response, NAAO brought together ten young people under the age of thirty who were identified by NAAO members as emerging leaders.

Cooper Industries is a leading manufacturer of electrical products, tools, hardware, and automotive products. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Cooper employs over 41,000 people on six continents.