Funding Research

In the tradition of Dana, an ancient Pali word meaning generosity or giving, the Dana Foundation funded the Dana Arts and Cognition Consortium in July 2004, to study the effect of the arts on learning. At the GIA conference in Los Angeles, October 2005, Michael Gazzaniga, director of the Consortium1, described a three-year study being undertaken by the Con-sortium as "the first extensive scientific attempt to provide a comprehensive picture of the role of arts education in changing the brain."

"I believe that if we can keep our values close, our imaginations open, and our stories fierce, we can and will win." - Thenmozhi Soundararajan

Introduction

2005, 65 pages. McKnight Foundation, 710 Second Street South, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401, 612-333-4220

Carolyn Bye, executive director of the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, writes in the introduction that You Are Here reports on the "small steps" taken by communities in the Twin Cities suburbs since the publication of A New Angle: Arts Development in the Suburbs in 2002. The report features profiles of twelve suburban art projects and a detailed pull-out map showing where to find them and many others.

The recently formed GIA Community Foundations Working Group has begun to plan a variety of initiatives in response to members' interest in learning more about how community foundations work and the different ways they support the arts. Members who attended the GIA conference in 2003 and heard Lucy Bernholz's plenary remarks could not forget the facts about the remarkable current and projected growth in donor advised funds.

For classical music lovers in East Texas and Western Louisiana, KTPB-FM has been the only source of classical music programming for the past fifteen years. From its first broadcasts, KTPB has offered the live presentations of the Metropolitan Opera alongside concerts of the Longview Symphony and the East Texas Symphony Orchestra.

2006, 114 pages. Published by the University of Minnesota, Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, Project on Regional and Industrial Economics (PRIE). Funded by the McKnight Foundation and the Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs, University of Minnesota.

2005, 65 pages. Institute for Innovation in Social Policy, Vassar College, Box 529, Poughkeepsie, NY 12604, 845-452-7332. For copies contact opdycke@earthlink.net

The second in a series based on a national survey (the first was 2002), this report looks at participation in artistic and cultural experiences in the US in quantifiable terms as well as in ways such experiences affect the well-being of participants. One key finding is that 78 percent of respondents "believe that attending art events helped them to see things from other people's perspectives."

2005, 24 pages. Washington State Arts Commission, 711 Capitol Way S. Suite 600, PO Box 42675, Olympia, WA 98504-2675, 360-753-3860, info@arts.wa.gov

2005, 78 pages. McKnight Foundation, 710 Second Street South, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401, 612-333-4220

Beginning with an honest appraisal of the way changing economic factors have reshaped Minnesota's rural communities, this elegant publication highlights artistic projects and the individuals who have helped maintain or restore cultural vitality to different towns throughout the state.

2005, 98 pages. National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture, 145 Ninth Street, Suite 250, San Francisco, CA 94103, 415-431-1391

In celebration of its twenty-fifth anniversary, NAMAC invited seven authors with an intimate knowledge of their subject matter to write about overlooked or neglected media arts histories from around the country. Highlights include "Visions and Hindsights: Seattle's and/or Alternative Art Space 1974-1984" by Robin Oppenheimer and a conversation with activist archivists Andrew Lampert and Rick Prelinger by Melinda Stone.