The Committee welcomed Paul Tyler, grants director of ArtsKC, a regional arts council in Kansas City, Missouri. Also new to the Committee is Ruby Lerner, executive director of Creative Capital, a nationally-focused support organization serving artists with funding, counseling, and career development services.
A subcommittee has been working on establishing a new blog, Supporting Today's Artists, which is now live on the GIA website and features content from GIA members and the broader field. All GIA members are invited to submit content; information may include new program initiatives, collaborations, program evaluations, research, press releases, and leadership transitions related to the artists support field. Suggested content for the new site may be directed to Tommer Peterson at GIA: tommer@giarts.org.
GIA deputy director Tommer Peterson provided an update on the Artist Support Benchmarking Initiative. The research team working on the project is beginning to develop a method for collecting data that illustrates the ecology of artist support throughout the U.S. The database will be ready for testing by GIA members in the fall of 2014, and will be launched for more comprehensive data collection in 2015.
Recommendations were made to the Committee of possible preconference topics for the 2014 Conference in Houston. Suggestions included the role of artists in emergency proparedness and disaster response. Futher discussion and coordination with the conference planning committee will occur over the coming months.
The Committee discussed possible small projects to focus on in 2014. Tony Grant of Sustainable Arts Foundation shared their efforts to capture data from artists seeking grant opportunities nationally. A new website has been set up to capture this information.
A project to document the origins of individual artist support in the U.S. continues. Several committee members voluntered to help bring the project to fruition.