The McKnight Foundation has named Minnesota visual artist, performer, designer, director, and teacher Sandy Spieler as the 2014 McKnight Distinguished Artist, in recognition of artistic excellence spanning four decades. Now in its 17th year, the annual honor includes a $50,000 cash award and recognizes individual Minnesota artists who have made significant contributions to the quality of the state’s cultural life.
GIA Blog
Posted on June 20, 2014 by Steve
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti has nominated Danielle Brazell as General Manager of the Department of Cultural Affairs. Brazell has led Arts for LA since 2006, transitioning it from an ad-hoc steering committee composed of local executive arts leadership to a highly visible arts advocacy organization serving the greater Los Angeles region. Brazell’s nomination is subject to confirmation by the City Council.
Posted on June 18, 2014 by Steve
From by Geoff Decker, writing for Chalkbeat New York:
The city should subsidize the salaries of new arts teachers for up to three years to make sure schools are complying with state arts requirements, a coalition of education advocates says. In a letter sent to Chancellor Carmen Fariña on this week, the group outlined tips for how the Department of Education should spend an extra $23 million that’s likely to be allotted to the arts budget next year. Arts spending has fallen over the past decade amid shifting priorities, hovering at around $300 million in recent years.
Posted on June 18, 2014 by Tommer
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) CEO Jonathan Katz received a special Distinguished Achievement Award from Americans for the Arts (AFTA) at that organization's annual conference in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 14.
Posted on June 16, 2014 by Steve
Freedom Funders: Philanthropy and the Civil Rights Movement, 1955-1965 was commissioned by the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, authored by Sean Dobson, president of Dobson Consulting. The report examines four foundations that played a critical, but often-overlooked, role in passage of the Civil Rights Act.
Posted on June 16, 2014 by Tommer
Some wise humor from Andrew Taylor.
Posted on June 12, 2014 by Tommer
This afternoon, the United States Senate voted to confirm Jane Chu as the 11th chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. The White House is expected to make the official appointment in the coming days and Chu will begin her appointment shortly thereafter. Jane Chu said, "I’m honored to receive the Senate’s vote of confirmation, and I look forward to serving our nation as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Posted on June 12, 2014 by Steve
From Jennifer Schuessler, at The New York Times:
The Library of Congress is to announce on Thursday that the next poet laureate will be Charles Wright, the author of nearly two dozen collections of verse that fuse the legacy of European modernism with mystical evocations of the landscape of the American South.
Mr. Wright, 78, a retired professor at the University of Virginia, has already won just about every other honor in the poetry world, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the Bollingen Prize and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize.
Posted on June 11, 2014 by Steve
A new report from the University of Chicago’s cultural Policy Center compares the direct public dollars received by organizations and artists in Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Denver, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland (OR), San Diego, and San Francisco from 2002-2012. Public Funding for Art: Chicago Compared with 12 Peer Regions was authored by Jennifer Novak-Leonard and Patience Baach.