GIA Blog

(10-26-10) The Nonprofit Operating Reserves Initiative Workgroup (organizers are Bill Levis and Bess Hamilton Foley) has compiled the Operating Reserves Policy Toolkit: First Edition to serve as a technical reference for nonprofit board and staff policy committees, as well as their financial consultants and professionals, as they respond to the message of the whitepaper “Maintaining Nonpro

(10-25-10) Americans for the Arts has released its annual top-ten list of companies that support the arts. Local and regional utilities are in the majority, but banking, health care, and communications are also represented. The complete list (and David Ng's comments on the cited companies' corporate practices) here.

(10-22-10) In addition to the “official blogs” a few other attendees have posted commentary on the conference. Hoong Lee Yee Krakauer has a couple posts here and a longer piece here, complete with courtroom-style sketches! Ian David Moss also weighs in on his popular Createquity blog.

(10-22-10) Ontarians believe more passionately in the importance of the arts than they did 16 years ago, a survey suggests. The poll, conducted by Environics Research Group on behalf of the Ontario Arts Council, documents the attitudes of the province’s residents toward the arts as an issue of the quality of life, both for individuals and communities.

Good morning: “And the beat goes on…………………” Wrap-Up: 3 to 4 day conferences are strange little experiences.  None any more so than gatherings of arts leaders.  Thrown together in one space, there is a usual breakdown in these things that … Continue reading →

This is my sixth and final post about the Grantmakers in the Arts 2010 conference, where I was invited to take part as a live blogger. It was tremendous fun: I got to write morning, noon, and night, which is … Continue reading →

The opening plenary of the Grantmakers in the Arts conference featured a fabulous performance by spoken word artist Marc Kelly Smith and the Speak’Easy Ensemble (Robbie Q. Telfer, Joel Chmara, Tim Stafford, Molly Meacham, and Dan Sullivan). Their task was … Continue reading →

“And the beat goes on……………” Reflections: The CapitalizationProject will have to confront the thorny issue lying underneath the surface: the assumption that to get where the project seeks to go there will have to be, at least some wholesale restructuring … Continue reading →

On Tuesday, I attended a Grantmakers in the Arts conference presentation on “Participatory Arts and Community Health: Challenges and Opportunities,” organized by Amy Kitchener of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. It began with presentations on exemplary projects braiding art … Continue reading →

Joi Ito’s luncheon keynote yesterday keeps spinning in my head. The CEO of Creative Commons has been involved in many technology startups as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, and part of his talk explored how innovation and invention is changing … Continue reading →