Funding Research

New England Builds Communities through Culture

Building Communities through Culture (BCC) fosters and encourages community-building projects in New England by linking arts and non-arts partners in select areas in the region. Established in 1995 as an initiative of the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA), BCC is supported by The Boston Foundation, the Fund for the Arts, and a 1997 NEA grant of $200,000 for Leadership Projects in Underserved Areas.

The NEA has been mired in controversy for most of the past decade, during which time it has lost much of its appropriation and even more of its autonomy, as Congress has directed larger chunks of its annual appropriation to the states, earmarked other moneys for special purposes, and effectively placed off limits NEA fellowships for most kinds of artists.

1997, 24 pages (executive summary), The Getty Education Institute for the Arts, 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 600, Los Angeles, California 90049-1683

1997, 114 pages, Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, Publishing Center, 919 Lafond Avenue, Saint Paul, Minnesota 55104-2198, 1-800-274-6024

Landscape dominates Oregon. Its beaches, mountains, and rivers beckon Oregonians to spend their leisure time hiking, skiing, and fishing. Many Portland residents routinely exit the city on weekends, choosing outdoors over urban culture. It is within this enticing natural environment that Portland's arts and cultural institutions must engage their audiences and make their way as financially viable institutions.

April 1997, 23 pages, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Avenue S.W., Washington D.C. 20202-0110

1998, 82 pages, SPUR, 312 Sutter Street, Suite 500, San Francisco, California 94108-4305, 415-781-8726, fax: 415-781-7291, spur[at]well.com.

Produced by San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, this report provides details and insights from a three-day community workshop that addressed the following concerns:

• the ability of cultural institutions to meet their full audience potential, to educate needy individuals, to attract new donations, and to secure major traveling exhibits

To Protect the Powerless in the Digital Age
An Open Letter to Foundations: To Protect the Interests of the Powerless in the Digital Age, Communications Researchers Need Your Support

The "open letter" has a number of signers.
August 12, 1998. 33 pages. The Civil Rights Forum on Communications Policy, 818 18th Street, N.W. Suite 810, Washington, D.C. 20006, 202-887-0301, forum[at]civilrightsforum.org.

1998, 20 pages, The Flinn Foundation, 3300 North Central Avenue, Suite 2300, Phoenix, Arizona 85012, 602-274-9000, info[at]flinn.org

Why is it that the Twentieth Century has witnessed an abundance of large-scale utopian plans for social and economic development that have accomplished, contrary to their lofty objectives, immense human suffering and massive environmental degradation? In his book, Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, James C.