GIA Blog

From Jared Keller at the Atlantic:

Malissa Feruzzi Shriver, Chair, California Arts Council, today announced the appointment of Craig Watson as the new Director for the state agency. Watson's appointment represents the first time in the 36-year history of the state agency that the Director has been hired directly by the Council rather than by appointment of the Governor. Watson is currently the Executive Director of the Arts Council for Long Beach, and will start with the California Arts Council on August 15, 2011.

Americans for the Arts has an alert regarding NEA funding. Take a moment to look it over:

A new month, a new slide show of member-supported projects on the GIA website! Our July featured member is Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue. Based in New York City, Artadia's mission is to encourage innovative practice and meaningful dialogue across the United States by providing visual artists in specific communities with unrestricted awards and a national network of support. Our gratitude to Ute Zimmermann, program manager at Artadia, for the photo selection.

Registration for the 2011 GIA Conference in San Francisco is now open. Visit the conference website at conference.giarts.org for details and registration information.

You can follow online discussion of the 2011 conference on Twitter by following the hashtag #gia2011. The conference begins on Sunday, October 9 and runs through Wednesday, October 12.

I’ve been to many conferences in my life. Too many really to even begin to count them. I am always astonished by how much energy they give me (and it’s not just the cookies and candy in the afternoon.) Just recently, I attended TCG in Los Angeles and Chorus America in San Francisco. There is something truly magical about being in a place filled with people who know what you know, speak what you speak and treasure what you treasure. It is a sense of community, of understanding and of empathy.

Knight Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) today are launching an eight-city competition seeking new models for local arts journalism in the digital age. The initiative seeks to rethink how traditional media systems function, harnessing the latest tools and technology to make the transition to the new information environment. Winners of the Knight/NEA Community Arts Journalism Challenge will use the latest tools for storytelling and engaging readers to create model programs that could be replicated in other communities.

Perry Chen, co-founder and CEO of Kickstarter, the social website for fundraising, spoke at the 2011 Activate conference in London. In a video posted by The Guardian he speaks about using the platform for crowdsourcing funding for artistic projects.

San Francisco Mayor Edwin M. Lee today announced that he has accepted the resignation of Luis R. Cancel, the Director of Cultural Affairs and the head of the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC). Mr. Cancel’s last day will be Friday, July 8, 2011. The SFAC will select an Interim Director on Monday, July 11th and immediately commence a search for a permanent Director of Cultural Affairs.

Steve Gunderson has announced his resignation as president and CEO of the Council on Foundations today.