Arts and Community Development

October 18-20, 2000, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, co-sponsored by the Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and Heinz Endowments.
November 13-15, 2000, San Francisco, California, co-sponsored by the Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund and Walter and Elise Haas Fund.

This issue introduced "From Washington," a new column contributed by Shelley Feist, associate, National Culture Program, The Pew Charitable Trusts. The column provides readers with information on policy and regulatory matters at the federal level affecting nonprofit arts and culture. The aim is to present brief reports on timely but underreported items.

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.

The remarkable growth of the online sector in recent years can be assessed in many ways — from the rapidly expanding number of wired households (over half are now connected to the Internet) to the sheer explosion of content on the World Wide Web (which now encompasses over a billion pages). Data traffic exceeds voice traffic on the nation's phone lines now, and far more email messages than postal letters are sent every day.

No. 1, December 1999, 8 pages; No. 2, June 2000, 12 pages; No. 3, June 2000, 12 pages. Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, Collins Center for Public Policy, 150 SE Second Avenue, Suite 709, Miami, Florida 33131, 305-377-4484

1995, 14 pages. Roadside Theater, 306 Madison Street, Whitesburg, Kentucky, 41858, 606-633-0108.

Most of us initially became acquainted with Kraft Foods as we consumed some of their products at an early age. My grandmother introduced me to the macaroni and cheese. Nowadays, I go for the Toblerone chocolate...frequently. Meanwhile, as the products filled our refrigerators and pantry shelves, the company thrived and so did the company's giving efforts, which date back to 1937.

It's January 26, 2000 and two sisters greeted each other happily at Elko, Nevada's small airport. Waiting at the baggage claim, they schemed about doing things they wanted to do together, and not giving in to their mother who had plans for a family snow outing. "I moved west to get away from all that snow," one said. "Well one thing for sure," her sister answered, "We'll want to get away. Those cowboy poets are in town and they're everywhere."

How can the arts promote positive social change? That's what the staff and board of the Kentucky Foundation for Women wanted to find out. We thought we knew. Or at least we thought we had a pretty good idea. After all, our mission is to promote positive social change through varied feminist expression in the arts, and we have been around for fifteen years.