Individual Artists Support Committee Report | Winter 2013

During our November call we recapped the 2013 GIA preconference, held on Sunday October 6 at the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia. Heartfelt congratulations and thanks went out to preconference co-chairs Melissa Franklin (Pew Center for Arts & Heritage) and Esther Grimm (3Arts) for their planning and logistical work. Also acknowledged were the committee members who participated in sessions or otherwise contributed to making the day a success.

It was noted that the opening session, Starting Up: A Conversation among Artist Support Pioneers, was videotaped and is available on the GIA website. Using this documentation as a starting point, the committee agreed on the usefulness of the material in its current form and proposed ways to make specific content within the video more readily accessible. The committee also discussed the value of continuing to gather and document the history of the field and how historical resources might inform current and future decisions. The committee will continue to address this in the coming year.

As part of our ongoing effort to keep artists at the forefront of what we do, we considered ways to better engage artists in the committee’s work. Suggestions included the addition of an artist to the 2014 preconference planning committee and the creation of an artist-in-residence position on this committee.

Co-Chair Transition

Esther Grimm has finished her two-year term as co-chair of the Committee. We thanked Esther for her stellar leadership during her tenure and look forward to her continued work as a committee member. The committee welcomed Jayson Smart of the Rasmuson Foundation, who will serve in 2014 as new co-chair with Rose Parisi of the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

New Members

The Committee welcomes two new members in the New Year: Ruby Lerner of Creative Capital Foundation and Paul Tyler of ArtsKC. We look forward to their contributions.