Funding Research

Overhaul of Elementary and Secondary Education

On November 12, 2000, a headline on the front page of the Atlanta Journal/Constitution read, "Study finds Atlanta arts community trailing peers." A full-page story in Section A followed. This one headline challenged the city's cherished self-assessment as "cultural jewel of the South" and quietly affirmed the suspicions of many of its artists and cultural workers.

This is the story about the headline, the study, and the volunteer efforts of an incorporated ad hoc group that calls itself the Atlanta Arts Think Tank and that commissioned the landmark study.

Meetings are big business. Or, in other words, talk is not cheap. An economic impact study by Deloitte & Touche LLP demonstrated that conventions, expositions, and meetings generated $82 billion in total direct spending in 1994, supporting 1.57 million jobs.1 Meetings of associations and membership organizations, as opposed to corporate-sponsored events, account for the lion's share of this spending (68 percent). Many of these associations serve the arts and culture.

This article takes a close look at certain internal dynamics that generally accompany "capacity-building" activities. I draw on my experience, over two decades, designing, managing, and evaluating programs aimed at increasing the organizational health of nonprofit arts organizations. Both my work in the arts and a prior career as a family counselor inform my understanding of the ways that the thought processes of nonprofit managers change when capacity-building programs are successful and have an enduring impact.

"Capacity grantmaking"

A New Framework for Building Participation in the Arts
Kevin F. McCarthy and Kimberly Jinnett, RAND, 2001,
112 pages, 310-451-7002, order@rand.org.

Another research report lands on your desk. Do you make time to read it, or does it add to a growing pile of things-to-read-someday?

The magnitude and distribution of foundation arts and culture grants in 2000 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 1996 to 2000.

Download:

 Arts Funding Snapshot 2000 (1.7Mb)

September 2001, 40 pages. Click here or contact Artist Trust, for a hard copy.

2001, 43 pages; summary, 8 pages. Arts Education Task Force of Arts for LA, 213-974-1343, Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

May 2000, 92 pages. Council of Europe Publishing; U.S. sales agent: Manhattan Publishing Co., 468 Albany Post Road, Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520, 914-271-5194.

The future seems to me no unified dream but a mince pie, long in the baking...
-E.B. White

It's broccoli, dear.
I say it's spinach, and I say the hell with it.
-Caption for a New Yorker cartoon by Carl Rose

2000, 39 pages. Center for Arts and Culture, Washington D.C.