Funding Research

2000, 52 pages, New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA).

Working paper writer, Mindy Levine; convening curator, Heather Hitchens

August 2000, 24 pages, Arts International.

1965, Partisan Review, also published in Against Interpretation and Other Essays, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York (1966), 304 pages.

In Susan Sontag's essay, "Styles," published by Partisan Review in 1965 and reprinted in Against Interpretation, a collection of her essays about art, she states:

2000, 46 pages. The McKnight Foundation, 600 TCF Tower, 121 South Eighth Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55402, (612) 333-4220.

This monograph celebrates poet Robert Bly with photographs, essays by friends and colleagues, and Bly's own poems. The Distinguished Artist Award, now in its third year, recognizes and celebrates Minnesota artists who have founded and/or strengthened Minnesota's arts organizations, mentored and inspired younger artists, and attracted audiences and patrons who enable art to survive.

October 2000, 94 pages. Bay Area Video Coalition, 2727 Mariposa Street, 2nd floor, San Francisco, California, 94110, (415) 558-2100, funded by the Ford Foundation.

This study identifies successful programs and practices of training programs that provide low-income people with job skills in the technology field. The study can be helpful to grantmakers wishing to better understand this field.

Cultural Policy Research was the topic of two breakfast roundtables at GIA's 2000 conference in Minneapolis. A combination of scheduled presenters and other participants gave brief summaries of current research underway. The cumulative impact of hearing about so many projects at the same time inspired Reader editors to want to share the reports with our readers. This overview does not pretend to be exhaustive, but rather is a snapshot based on roundtable participation and the ability of the following report contributors to respond quickly to our invitation. We extend many thanks to them.

The editors of the Reader received a letter from Deborah Obalil, author of Barriers and Motivations to Increased Arts Usage among Medium and Light Users. This study was discussed in "Readings in Cultural Participation" by Frances Phillips, published on page 18 in the autumn 1999 issue of GIA's Newsletter (now the Reader). In her letter, Obalil pointed out that the Newsletter article misrepresented Barriers and Motivations in a few key ways.

Founded in 1947, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission is a unit of county government housed within the executive office of the county board of supervisors. Each of the five supervisors appoints three commissioners who advise the board on issues of governance, policy, and funding allocation. For fiscal year 2000-2001, the total budget of the Commission is approximately $3,815,000, reflecting a four-fold increase in only eight years. For this year, $1,902,000 has been awarded in grants to 146 organizations.

The so-called new economy, driven by an explosion in technological innovation and new communication tools, has especially affected California's San Francisco Bay Area, where web-based start-ups are overabundant and everything seems to be preceded by an "e". Perhaps because of their innovative nature, technology firms often locate offices in marginalized neighborhoods or abandoned industrial zones. At first this trend seemed to revitalize former nadirs of economic activity with new neighborhood restaurants, cafés, and other service-oriented businesses.

Texas is much in the news today. Its environmental record and education reforms are bandied around as political hot potatoes in this year's presidential race. So what has George W. Bush, governor of the state, done for the arts in Texas? Basically, he has kept arts funding stable in the state budget. On a more personal level, the Bushes received the first two state arts affinity license plates (Texas's arts license plates are the most popular affinity plates in the state) and have agreed to serve as co-hosts of the Texas Medal of Arts event in spring 2000.