Capacity Building

“Hauser & Wirth Institute gives $700,000 in grants to preserving historical records,” reports Benjamin Sutton in the Art Newspaper. “One of the things we’re trying to do is set a new precedent for models of philanthropy in art,” says Lisa Darms, the executive director of Hauser & Wirth Institute.

Stories can make us connect in unsuspected ways. A piece by the Stanford Social Innovation Review makes the case for the power of stories to make, prop up, and bring down systems.

January 2016, 19 pages. The James Irvine Foundation, One Bush Street, Suite 800, San Francisco, California, 94104. www.irvine.org.

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   Building a Resilient Sector (9.2Mb)

About four years ago I attended an extraordinary meeting in Philadelphia. Susan Nelson, principal of Technical Development Corporation (TDC), was presenting the draft of Getting Beyond Breakeven to the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and many other stakeholders associated with the work.

116 pages, May 2012. Partners for Livable Communities, 1429 21st Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036, (202) 887-5990 www.livable.org.

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   Stories for Change (2.5Mb)

Rocco Landesman’s Can of Worms

At a recent public debate about organic food, the proponents of organic farming extolled its virtues by listing its various benefits. It is kinder to the environment, they said, and to animals, and it keeps toxic chemicals out of our bodies. “But does it taste better?” an audience member asked. To my surprise, the experts hesitated. “We can’t reliably measure that effect,” one of them explained. “So it’s not a claim we make.” The exchange reminded me about everything that’s wrong with arts advocacy these days.

October 2010, 74 pages. Mission Models Money, c/o ICCE Goldsmiths, New Cross, London SE14 6NW, www.missionmodelsmoney.org.uk