This month's slideshow of member-supported grantees was provided by The Leeway Foundation in Philadelphia. Funded by a gift from Philadelphia-based artist Linda Lee Alter in 1993, the foundation's initial focus was support for women artists in the metro area. Now approaching its 20th anniversary, Leeway supports women and trans artists and cultural producers working in communities at the intersection of art, culture, and social change.
GIA Blog
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From Peter Plagens at The Wall Street Journal:
To be blunt, Portland's art scene has a lot of no-no on its lips but yes-yes in its eyes.
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The New York Times has opened a Room for Debate on its Opinion Pages to discuss arts funding:
What can we do to stabilize funding for the arts? Can we learn from other countries’ examples? While arts funding is drying up in parts of Europe because of austerity measures, it’s flourishing in Brazil because of a tax on Brazilian companies.
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The Cleveland Foundation has partnered with EmcArts through the Engaging the Future program to work with 12 Cleveland cultural institutions that range from Museum of Contemporary Art to Karamu House as they generate innovative approaches for engaging younger and more diverse audiences. To explore their journeys so far, 12 short audio postcards were produced about their starting conditions and current priorities, featuring images from each group with audio narration.
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From the National Governors Association website:
With concerns over job creation and business growth holding a prominent—and persistent—position on policy agendas today, governors are increasingly finding innovative ways to support economic growth, according to a new report out today from the National Governors Association (NGA).
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From Brian Hinrichs for ArtsFwd:
When the internationally renowned contemporary dance company the Trey McIntyre Project (TMP) needed a permanent home in 2008, they chose Boise, Idaho, a place where they felt they could thrive artistically while building a new type of community-integrated organization. Many in the industry thought they were crazy. But the city of Boise has since become TMP’s greatest cheerleader and inspiration, leading to a 2010 New York Times headline, “Dancers Adopt a City and Vice-Versa”.
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Read how the small city of Morristown, New Jersey is putting the pieces together to highlight and enliven the community arts scene. From Sharon Sheridan at Morristown Green:
From the beginning, our goal was to highlight the writing and artwork of the younger members of our community. Junior correspondents covered events ranging from First Night to LARPing at Headquarters Plaza. One of them even interviewed Santa Claus atop an undisclosed tower in town. We featured artwork from local schools, the Neighborhood House and individual artists.
It wasn’t too long before Morristown Green Editor Kevin Coughlin suggested we showcase kids’ creativity further with an art show. Last spring’s series of cultural events at a former car dealership on Bank Street seemed the perfect opportunity.
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Mark Stern writes for ARTSblog as part of its May blog salon focusing on Social Impact of the Arts:
Susan Seifert and I began the Social Impact of the Arts Project (SIAP) in 1994 in response to the attention that economic impact studies were gaining at the time. We felt—in addition to their methodological flaws—that these studies captured only a fraction of the importance that the arts held for society.
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From Jon Pounds at ARTSblog:
Public art is more than a beautifying (or inspiring) public amenity—it is social catalyst and civic infrastructure. Picasso’s untitled sculpture was dedicated in Chicago’s Civic Center in August 1967 the same month that the first community mural, The Wall of Respect was painted by the artists of Organization of Black American Culture just a few miles away. Each were astonishing moments in the history of public art. But can we say that the Picasso has ever brought more than a handful of people in to town just to look at it for 90 minutes—or that the loss of The Wall of Respect in 1970 ended its ability to inform and inspire?
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Theatre Communications Group has joined with the University of Minnesota Libraries Performing Arts Archives and the American Theatre Archive Project to examine how theaters think about their cultural legacy and what they do about their archives. An online survey is now open to gather data on the subject:
We want to know how your theater companies are (or aren’t) documenting your productions for future use. We hope to hear from as many people as possible who are working in theaters. If you know of other theater companies who could contribute to this discussion, please share the survey link with their directors. We are particularly interested in hearing from theaters of color, whose history has been most at risk of disappearing without a full or reliable story, but we are interested in hearing from everyone.