GIA and the NEA: Chairs and Conversations

In the total scheme of things, last week was darn exciting for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Rocco Landesman was confirmed by the Senate as the new Chairman and Joan Shigakawa, past Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) board member most recently with the Rockefeller Foundation, was appointed Senior Deputy Chairman. To top it off, I was in a meeting with Anita Decker at the NEA when she received the Senate committee confirmation notice. (She’s the new White House liaison and a veteran of the Obama campaign.) Amazing how we all react at times like that. I was as excited to be one of the “first to know” as my incredibly enthusiastic class of masters in arts administration students from Goucher College in Baltimore. We were all tickled to be "political insiders" for just a moment.

Rocco didn’t waste time giving us a real sense of his style and passion in his interview with the NY Times. He has a “louder and bolder” attitude that I like. This will be complimented by Joan’s vast experience in the funding world and the outstanding staff of program managers at the Endowment. There is great potential and opportunity for the NEA and GIA to partner in seeking solutions to major arts funding issues. Are we encouraging and creating new philanthropists for the arts? How do we connect the perception that the arts are a positive with the belief (according to more than one poll) that artists have little value in our society? What about international cultural exchange and diplomacy? What about aggregating research and the dissemination of it? How is our field capitalized for sustainability? Lots of big questions.

GIA has already started a dialogue with the NEA spurred on by our president, Vickie Benson and interim NEA Chair, Patrice Walker Powell. Patrice hosted a convening of private grantmakers and NEA program directors, communication, research and administrative staff in Washington, DC, on June 29, 2009. John McCann, president of Partners in Performances, Inc, facilitated the three and a half hour discussion. The meeting grew from a discussion between Ms. Powell and Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) President Benson who jointly expressed the desire to develop greater communication between public and private grantmakers during the economic downturn. The intent of the meeting was not to develop programming or collaborations but rather to begin a dialogue and share strategies.

Themes of the dialogue centered on the reality of grantmaking in this environment, curating grants from a new perspective since their impact on organizations could be life-sustaining and letting go of organizations either through mergers, acquisitions or dissolutionment. NEA staff commented on the recent ARRA grants and private grantmakers talked about repurposing funding for grantees, program changes and the dilemma faced by all of making decisions that could lead to an organization’s demise. A full report of this meeting will be published in this fall’s Reader.

Before she slips back into her role as Deputy Chairman of the State, Regional and Local Arts Agencies at the NEA, great kudos have to be given to Patrice Powell. As a disclaimer, I’ve known and worked with Patrice for some 15 or 20 years. She has always been an exemplary model of leadership and integrity for professional grantmakers. As interim Chair, she did what no other NEA Chair has ever done. She took $50 million, developed criteria, announced opportunities, juried applications and got the money to grantees within a 10 week period…out the door faster than almost all other agencies dealing with stimulus money. You have to give her credit. She would graciously (and gracious is one of the words I would always use to define Patrice) say she shouldn’t get any credit, that it was the team of program managers and staff at the NEA that did it. And they did… but it was her “can do” attitude and personal strength that led the way. There is real affection for the work of the Endowment and for her colleagues there when Patrice talks about the agency. A sense of integrity, history, purpose. As far as I’m concerned, Mr. Landesman (who I’m anxious to get to know and work with) has big shoes to fill…those of Patrice Walker Powell. Thank you Patrice for helping the NEA rise to the occasion.