Pre-conference reports

“I was very aware of the land… How open it is and how open the people were. I wondered if the openness of the land made us all more open to each other.”
— Nancy Fushan

For three days in October (Oct. 19–21, 2007) members of the Grantmakers in the Arts traveled to Zuni Pueblo where, along with Zuni culture bearers, artists and community members, they experienced the rich cultural, historical and artistic landscape that defines and shapes Zuni Pueblo.

Survey of Digital Opportunities for Arts Organizations and Artists
Panelists: Ted Berger, New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA); Penny Dannenberg, NYFA; Eve Smith, Benton Foundation

The Digital Divide
Panelists: Cynthia Lopez, P. O. V.; David Bolt, Producer

Young Media Artists/Youth Culture
Panelists: Dan Bergin, Twin Cities Public TV; Alex Rivera, Artist Producer

A hands-on, multiple-track laboratory on the digital revolution and the arts offered in consultation with the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture.

There are few moments in life when you get to experience a series of "firsts." That thought occurred to me in the Albuquerque airport as a first-time visitor to New Mexico, as well as a first-time attendee to both the GFE and GIA conferences.

Arts and education grantmakers at an historic gathering in Santa Fe in October of 2007 agreed on the need to forge a new vision for public education in the United States and to collectively explore how the arts can help shape and realize that vision.

Convened by Grantmakers in the Arts and Grantmakers for Education, more than 100 foundation representatives met formally for the first time under the aegis of their two affinity organizations to debate and discuss the role of the arts in education.

Crossing Borders and Boundaries was the theme of the GFE Conference in 2007, and shortly after the GFE and GIA conferences and the Arts and Education Weekend, I left for a trip to Asia including visits to Thailand, Cambodia, and Hong Kong. The GFE conference underscored the fact that one of the most important skills needed now is to be globally literate, which is pretty much being neglected in schools at the moment.

According to some, "the word twain has its origin in the Old English twegen, meaning two. The phrase never the twain shall meet was used by Rudyard Kipling, in his Barrack-room ballads, 1892: 'Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.'" Kipling uses a colonial lens to bemoan the lack of commonality and accord between the British and the indigenous East Indian. Until my recent trip to New Mexico I often felt that same lack of accord between arts funders and education funders.