Family Foundation

On May 15 and 16, 2002, more than 100 funders, artists, academicians, arts administrators, and community arts practitioners gathered in New Haven, Connecticut. We were there to participate in a convening organized by New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) entitled, "RE/New England: Investigating Community Building through Culture." The Open Society Institute and the Pitney Bowes Foundation provided funding for the conference. Participants came from thirteen states and the District of Columbia.

June 2002, 350 pages, Basic Books, 387 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016-8810, Creative Class.

September 11 and Beyond
The following is excerpted from a March 2002 interview with Susan Beresford (president, Ford Foundation) that is included in September 11: Perspectives from the Field of Philanthropy, published August 2002 by the Foundation Center, 79 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10003, 212-620-4230. It is published by permission of the Foundation Center.

FC: It was common in the weeks after 9/11 to hear people say that the attacks had changed everything. Did September 11 change everything?

The theme of education in the arts can be found throughout GIA's programs. The role that the arts can play in education is one of four primary themes that will be explored at our 2002 conference, Creative Connections; and the "Bookmarks" column in this issue of the Reader concentrates on "Arts Education Resources on the Web". The following two articles take a look at recent research, specifically research that explores the connections between education in the arts and student learning in other realms.The theme of education in the arts can be found throughout GIA's programs.

First of all, it's a delight to be here this morning because I meet so many old friends, and I knew that you would be here related in some way or other to this gathering of foundations. The foundations you represent are doing what in an ideal situation, all governments would, should do. What you do with your contributions, with your interest, is help keep this world relatively sane. I say relatively for obvious reasons. What you do is feed a hunger for all the people of the world. Not simply food, clothing, shelter of course, but there is in everybody a hunger for beauty.

2000, 77 pages. NEA, 1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C., 20506-0001, 202-682-5400.

In 1999, Bill Ivey, as a part of his reevaluation of the NEA's funding strategies, convened a series of ten colloquia to discuss how arts institutions can more effectively serve their communities. Forty-one speakers participated; about half are well-known to GIA members and the other half included experts from intersecting fields such as advertising, entertainment, Internet services, and charitable gift funds.

2002, 64 pages. Museum Loan Network, MIT, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, N52-401, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, 617-252-1888, fax: 617-252-1899, loanet@mit-edu.

April 28-30, 2002, Asheville, North Carolina

March 6-8, 2002, Washington, D.C.

April 17-21, 2002, Lexington, Kentucky

• A bilingual play brings together migrant workers and immigrant rights activists in a pointed comedy portraying communications and miscommunications among Anglos and Spanish-speaking peoples living in and working in one community today.

• An African American theater company performs a rollicking — but serious — romp through the cultural changes from Motown to hip-hop, from soul food to vegan, from post-60s to post-modern America.