Readings

Over eighteen months, the California Community Foundation (CCF) provided seed grants as incentives for five small and midsized arts organizations to build capital reserves through its pilot program, Building Equity in the Arts (2012–14). The program’s goals were for these organizations to raise a reserve fund, to create a cash reserve policy, and to evidence an increase in their fund balance. While a seemingly straightforward challenge, the building of cash reserves required a great deal more than simple development and reallocation of resources.

Art is not magic; most artists are not all that different from other people. However, many of them developed a skill or asset that most of us haven’t: a fascination for the undercurrent in our society, in our social encounters, in our practices, in our organizations.
 —  Jaap Warmenhoven, Stanford Social Innovation Review

Over the past few decades, arts advocates have toiled diligently to support and sustain the arts in a climate that has not always felt very welcoming. Culture wars, economic recessions, technological disruptions, accusations of elitism, and (most frightening, perhaps) the perceived menace of societal indifference have at times all conspired to create an impression for many of an arts ecology under perpetual threat.

Today anyone with an Internet connection can access thousands of courses online for free. With the rapid rise of these MOOCs (massive open online courses), the major disruption of our education system has been a hot topic of late. But democratizing education is not a new idea.

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   Introducing Community Innovation Labs (395 Mb)

The time has come for the arts to pay overdue attention to teaching artistry.

In 2008, ten performing arts organizations embarked on an experiment in capitalization. As participants in Nonprofit Finance Fund’s Leading for the Future (LFF) Initiative, the first program to introduce change capital on a national scale, they set out to develop new program models and operating structures that would respond to shifts in the artistic environment and serve as instructive examples to the field.

The mission of the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, established in 2002, is to enhance the quality of life of Oregonians through support of the arts and education. In the midst of the 2009 recession, the foundation began a six-year grantmaking initiative that provided general operating support to Portland’s five large arts organizations. The foundation made important shifts in its grantmaking strategy to help shore up the financial strength and stability of the Portland Opera, Oregon Ballet Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Portland Art Museum, and the Oregon Symphony.