GIA Blog

(4-12-10) Last week, PNC Foundation announced a planned $1.5 million investment in the arts in Columbus and central Ohio. Dubbed "Arts Alive," the program will award grants of $25,000 and above to organizations through a proposal and selection process. The PNC press release acknowledges the effects of the economic downturn on arts organizations and outlines the desired outcome of the granting process: "...to support diverse audience participation, fresh and emerging arts programs, value-added public programming, and innovative use of technology."

(4-11-10) A nice portrait of Rocco in the NYTimes, just in time for the budget hearings. Good work NEA!

“Everyone’s parsing every word that you utter, and I’m not used to that,” he said. “If the consequences are just you, it’s one thing. But everything has all these repercussions. I’m trying to find a balance because I have to be me, and I pride myself on being candid and direct and saying what I think. But occasionally I have to think about what I say.”

(4-9-10) “I find the scientists I work with to be very creative people,” says Brian Knep, an associate and the artist-in-residence at the Systems Biology department in the Harvard Medical School (HMS). “What I find kind of sad is that a lot of the science world feels very constrained in a way that’s not very good for inspiration in general.”

(4-7-10) Responding to a gap left by the wind-down of the Metro Phoenix Partnership for Arts and Culture, the Flinn Foundation and the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust will be redirecting $1.25 million in grant funds to the Flinn-Piper Strengthening the Arts Initiative. The Fund will award up to $750,000 in grants to implement new nonprofit structures, processes, and collaborative ventures to increase revenue and reduce costs.

(4-7-10) I had a conversation with a graduate student of mine from Goucher College last night who is writing his final paper on general operating support by private foundations and local arts agencies. It’s a very complicated topic and I’m always a torn about it.

(4-6-10)
Reported n the Cherokee Phoenix
Statement from President Obama

(4-6-10) In the Wall Street Journal...A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Federal Communications Commission exceeded its authority when it sanctioned Comcast Corp. in 2008 for deliberately slowing Internet traffic for some users. The unanimous decision is a blow to the FCC, which argued it had authority to police Internet providers and prevent them from blocking or slowing subscribers' Internet traffic.

(4-6-10) In an Opinion piece for the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Ford Foundation President Luis A.

(4-5-10) "We have never seen a confluence of specific urgencies, dynamic openings, and innovation like this moment represents. In each of our interest areas, conditions that favor progress have convinced us to spend everything over a short term.

(4-5-10) "'Trust us' is no Response to Those Who Doubt" is Jane Wales' (The Aspen Institute) Huffington Post summary of the recent spate of writing on philanthropy and the contemporary political environment. Wales addresses warnings from the field that suggest a potential backlash against the sector fueled by public anti-government/institution sentiments.