Private Foundation

January 7, 2005. Hosted by the Ford Foundation and organized by Grantmakers in Film and Electronic Media's (www.gfem.org) Working Group on Electronic Media Policy. Co-sponsored with Grantmakers in the Arts, the Funders Network on Trade and Globalization (www.fntg.org), and the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers (www.nyrag.org).

The lines between arts and environmental grantmaking often are sharply drawn. However, in the life of thriving communities, the two are integrally linked. As part of a roundtable discussion at last October's GIA conference, it was heartening to share vivid examples of how GIA members are exploring the intersections of environment and art.

We are very pleased that Ruby Lerner, executive director of Creative Capital, took up the challenge of writing about anti-terrorism language in grant award letters. As an intermediary organization, Creative Capital is in the position of being both a funder and a grantee. This dual role, shared by many other GIA members, gives Ruby an especially wide view of the topic.

As one of the three vice presidents of the Ford Foundation who issued the January 8, 2004 memo, I am fascinated and impressed by Ruby's description of Creative Capital's process for dealing with the memo. She and her colleagues correctly understood that Ford was not operating in a vacuum. We were responding to new Federal legislation that required us to review our own grantmaking and monitoring processes to insure that they conform to the new law. Importantly, we chose to make our values explicit in the memo rather than repeat the exact language of the legislation.

I believe it is time to begin a conversation about a new model for building a vibrant arts landscape. Since I left federal service in the fall of 2001, I have had an opportunity rare for former chairmen of the National Endowment for the Arts—the chance to create a research center engaging the very issues that fascinated me during my tenure with the endowment.

2004, 152 pages, Center for Arts Policy at Columbia College Chicago

2004. Centre for Creative Communities, 118 Commercial St., London E16NF, UK.

2004, 42 pages. Marwen, 833 North Orleans St., Chicago, IL, 60610, 312-944-2418, www.marwen.org

Anyone who works (or lives) in the circle of adolescents can appreciate the complexity of developing effective arts programs for teens. Fuel documents the essential characteristics of one such program at Marwen, a Chicago cultural organization that provides high-quality visual arts instruction, college planning, and career development to young people (grades six to twelve) free of charge during out of school time.

Vinay Jain, in light of recent negative PR concerning the non-profit world as a whole, examines foundations hesitancy in regards to media outreach.

Available free from the Stanford Social Innovation Review

Download:

   Off the Sidelines and into the Headlines (308Kb)

2004, 60 pages, ISBN 0-8330-3562-2. Published by the RAND Corporation, 1700 Main Street, PO Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA, 90407-2138, order@rand.org, http://www.rand.org/

Download pdf: http://www.rand.org/publications/MG/MG121/