GIA Blog

“Facing Change: Advancing Museum Board Diversity & Inclusion” is a newly released national initiative launched by the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) to diversify museum boards and leadership. The initiative, according to the press release, provides the framework, training, and resources for museum leaders to build inclusive cultures within their institutions that more accurately reflect the communities they serve, through $4 million in grants from awarded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Alice L. Walton Foundation, and Ford Foundation.

In data, "many untold stories and futures are nestled between rows, columns, formulas, and colors on a spreadsheet," writes in a recent post Adriana Gallego, chief operating officer of the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC). In this piece she says how patterns remind her of how impactful Latinx communities are.

“Philanthropy hasn’t done a lot for poetry,” said Elizabeth Alexander, poet and president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to The New York Times. Her words are a strong reminder of how underfunded is poetry. But this week, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced that it awarded $2.2 million to the Academy of American Poets.

Starting as a three-year pilot program and with partners in Australia, Canada, and the US, the Global First Nations Performance Network was recently launched during the First Nations Dialogues Lenapehoking/New York, a series of events that took place January 5-12 highlighting Indigenous performers.

The Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, submitted last week a 2019-20 budget proposal to the Legislature that includes an ongoing $10 million increased general fund allocation for the California Arts Council, California's state arts agency.

Calling out equity explicitly, the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) became the first city department to officially adopt a racial equity statement and plan following a unanimous vote this week by its board, reported KQED.

A white paper released by Kresge Foundation explores creative placemaking initiatives and the assessment of community development strategies. The latest white paper on creative placemaking, penned by Maria Rosario Jackson, makes the case on how the field could benefit from a more nuanced understanding of the roots of urban inequality, and improved ways of tracking change in communities.

More community college students in the Northeast Ohio region will have a path to complete a bachelor's degree at Case Western Reserve University or an associate’s degree at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C), thanks to a $2 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, reported Crain's Cleveland.

Mimi Levitt, a respected patron of the arts and historic conservation, died on January 6 of natural causes at her home in New York. Levitt believed in the arts as a source for positive social change and left a lasting legacy of generosity and service to the causes she supported, informed the Levitt Foundation. She was 97.

"We’re creative, we’re affordable, and you can help us stay that way." That is Des Moines' pitch to artists as Iowa's capital grows, according to an article in City Lab.