Jaime Sharp's Blog

"The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage (the Center) announced its 2022 grants and fellowships today in support of cultural events and artistic work that will enliven and enrich the Philadelphia region and represent diverse identities, personal experiences, and historical narratives. The 42 awards total $9.5 million: $7.2 million in project funding, plus $1.4 million provided as unrestricted general operating support for the 30 local organizations receiving project grants, and $900,000 going to 12 Philadelphia-area artists as Pew Fellowships."

From Yancey Consulting: "This is the story of Artist Relief 2020. It was an INCREDIBLE initiative.

• 9 months
• 161,000 applications
• $21 million raised
• 3,916 artists funded
• $5,000 each
• 100s of practitioners, administrators, artists, individual donors, and institutional funders mobilized

Take in the story. And then take in the recommendations and qualitative and quantitative reports. After doing so, let me know what you think and what we can do about crisis preparedness and resolving economic disparities."

"Groundbreaking ballerina Misty Copeland announced today the launch of The Misty Copeland Foundation (MCF), a new non-profit organization that aims to bring greater diversity, equity, and inclusion to dance, especially ballet. The MCF’s signature program, BE BOLD, is a free afterschool dance program, that is designed to serve girls and boys, ages 8-10, in community-based, child-focused settings. BE BOLD is an acronym, which translates into Ballet Explorations, Ballet Offers Leadership Development, and aims to make ballet accessible, affordable, and fun for children."

"Today the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and the City of Oakland announced plans to return approximately five acres of land owned by the City to Indigenous stewardship."

The Oakland City Council will hold hearings to consider conveying the site, known as Sequoia Point, to the non-profit, women-led, Sogorea Te’ Land Trust and the Confederated Villages of Lisjan Nation, an East Bay Ohlone tribe, through the creation of a cultural conservation easement. The City would grant the cultural conservation easement in perpetuity to the Land Trust, allowing the Land Trust to immediately use the land for natural resource restoration, cultural practices, public education, and to plan for additional future uses."

"Artists from across the state have come together in this small southwest Texas town to honor the 19 students and two teachers killed in late May at Robb Elementary School. They've painted giant portraits of each victim with the hope of helping the community heal."

"It's a huge endeavor at any time, but most especially during Texas in August."

"It's morning time but already sweltering just off Uvalde's pecan tree-lined town square. The artist who goes by the name Uloang, has been up all night painting, to avoid the blistering midday sun."

From Tooshar Swain for AFTA's ARTS blog, "National Arts in Education Week is upon us, and it is a wonderful time to reflect on where arts education has been and where it can go with impassioned arts advocacy. K-12 arts students and educators have endured a rocky road through the pandemic, and their perseverance must continue as we head into a new normal of education in the United States."

"VermontBiz Creative Futures Grants, with $9 million in funding from Vermont’s last legislative session, will be available beginning Thursday, Sept. 15, to help the creative sector recover from economic losses due to the pandemic."

Artnet News author Folasade Ologundudu is conducting a four-part series, "featuring Black artists across generations who work with social practice." The first interview in the series is with Linda Goode Bryant, "a mother of two, artist, activist, and filmmaker," whose, "exhibition 'Just Above Midtown: Changing Spaces' will debut at the Museum of Modern Art in New York almost half a century after Linda Goode Bryant first opened the doors of the gallery that inspired the show just a few blocks away, on West 57th Street."

From the White House Briefing Room: "At the national level, NEA Chair Jackson will participate in the United We Stand Summit, alongside National Endowment for the Humanities Chair Lowe, and will be partnering on a messaging initiative in future months. We extend an invitation for you to join us for this important, first-of-its-kind event, with information on how to watch the summit forthcoming. The arts and culture have an important role to play in this issue. As we all know, the arts help us develop the skills needed to find connection, common purpose, and recognition of our shared humanity. They are an integral part of America's civic infrastructure: the norms and agreements that we rely on to care for one another. In this time of division and polarization, strengthening this civic infrastructure through the arts is paramount."

"The report is authored by Rinku Sen and Mik Moore - leaders in social change narrative strategy, and we are very excited to share it far and wide, especially with funder networks who likely have had narrative change discussions bubbling up more and more. The report shares the deep gaps in understanding and funding approaches to narrative change, but more importantly, offers a framework for funders. It issues an urgent call for foundations to fund via Mass culture, Mass media, and Mass movement."