Funding Research

Booms and Busts

From the depths of our economic trough it is hard to look ahead, clear-eyed, and to see where U.S. foundations are headed. But consider, for a moment, where we have been. We have experienced an era in which: :

• New scientific and technological advances captured the popular imagination.
• These innovations promised a huge jump in economic productivity.
• There was talk about a new economy replacing an old economy.
• Many business corporations were consolidated and reorganized.

Arts Funding IV examines recent changes in arts grantmaking by one segment of private institutional donors — private and community foundations. While the larger, more fragmented arena of government and private support lies outside this investigation, it is nonetheless useful to place foundation support within this larger context. The following overview outlines the basic framework of private and public arts funding in the U.S. and discusses funding in relation to the overall financing of nonprofit arts groups.

Economic language and ideas have increasingly found their way into discussions of artistic value and cultural benefit. For better or for worse, the discipline of economics has been the lingua franca of public policy discourse for at least the past fifty years. Sometimes the terms resonate harshly on our ears. How do people in the world of arts and culture answer those who speak this language, who try to value cultural activity in terms of economic multipliers, cost-benefit analysis, quantitative outcome measures and, a current favorite, contingent valuation methodology?

The magnitude and distribution of foundation arts and culture grants in 2003 are the most significant findings of this report. Key findings of the report, based on arts grants of $10,000 or more reported to the Foundation Center by 1,010 of the larger U.S. foundations, are highlighted here.

This report also includes a brief examiniation of the growth of foundation giving from 1992 to 2005 and a summary of government funding for the arts from 1992 to 2005 by Kelly Barsdate of NASAA.

Download:

2001, 36 pages. Alliance for the Arts, 330 West 42nd Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY 10036, 212-947-6340

Who Pays for the Arts? is a fascinating analysis of funding trends for 575 cultural institutions in New York City from 1995-1999. Although charts, graphs, and statistics fill the study, the information they present is explained clearly and simply.

America's Performing Art
A Study of Choruses, Choral Singers, and Their Impact
Chorus America
2003. Funded by the James Irvine Foundation, the Kiplinger Foundation, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, and the Helen F. Whitaker Fund

Reggae to Rachmaninoff
How and Why People Participate in Arts and Culture
Chris Walker and Stephanie Scott-Melnyk, with Kay Sherwood. 2003. The Urban Institute (Washington, D.C.), Funded by the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds

Overview
The information presented here by no means represents an exhaustive review of arts-related advocacy Web sites. I have reviewed three national sites, one state site, and one local site.

The standard I used for defining and rating "advocacy material" was that the information could be printed or in other ways readily utilized by grassroots advocates in their interactions with elected officials on timely issues of concern to the arts community.

The Arts Education Partnership (AEP) held its winter forum on January 26 and 27 in San Francisco. The focus of the meeting was "Critical Issues in Arts Education: Partnering with Philanthropy."

Federal Support for Historic Preservation Fund on Downward Trajectory
In his fiscal year 2004 budget, President Bush proposed $67 million for the Historic Preservation Fund. The Fund is authorized at $150 million, but historically the Congress and Administration have provided in appropriations just one third of the authorized amount.

I am pleased to report on a new initiative to be launched in November 2003. I first got wind of this proposal at an event in Canada House in London where the organizers were sounding out representatives of the arts-on-television community as to their interest and enthusiasm for an annual gathering to be held in different places around the world. This is an initiative of the Banff Television Foundation based in Alberta, Canada and enjoys the support of IMZ (The International Music Zentrum, in Vienna), U.S. Independents (a Washington, D.C.