Grantmakers in the Arts

“Why not put money in the hands of artists to spark projects that would inspire public imagination?”

That's the question the Barr Foundation and the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) asked as the Creative City program began in 2015 and there was a clear interest for more arts in Boston, write in a post San San Wong, director of Barr Foundation's Arts & Creativity and GIA board member, and Cathy Edwards, executive director of New England Foundation for the Arts.

The Highlander Research and Education Center, a civil rights center in Tennessee founded in 1932, stated that a fire that burned its main office last Friday may have been intentionally set, after a “symbol connected to the white power movement” was found spray-painted in the parking lot next to the rubble of the building, as The New York Times reported.

Brion Gill (better known as Lady Brion), activist and spoken-word artist, led a walking tour of Baltimore that was part of the application process "to create what would be the first Maryland-designated arts and entertainment district dedicated to black arts and culture, in a city that happens to be two-thirds black," as Next City reports.

Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) announced Interchange, a new pilot program created to strengthen communities and individual artists within the organization's region by supporting artist-led projects focused on social impact.

An initiative to prevent funding groups that promote hatred was recently launched by Amalgamated Foundation and its partners. The "Hate Is Not Charitable" campaign is calling for Donor Advised Funds (DAF) providers "to exercise their legal discretion over grants recommended by their donors and adopt pro-active policies to ensure that funds do not flow to organizations that promote hatred."

For the month of April, GIA’s photo banner features work supported by Calgary Arts Development.

Calgary Arts Development supports and strengthens the arts to benefit all Calgarians. The agency invests and allocates municipal funding for the arts provided by The City of Calgary to support hundreds of arts organizations, individual artists, artist collectives, and ad hoc groups in Calgary, Alberta, in Canada.

Twenty-five rising high school seniors will have paid internships during the summer at local Boston arts and cultural organizations through the Bloomberg Arts Internship. The program seeks to help them develop career skills and gain professional experience in the arts, besides providing students college-readiness preparation.

A publicly-owned space, ARTS at King Street Station, a combination gallery and offices for the Seattle Office of Art and Culture, as Next City points out, is the house for a new exhibit, yəhaw̓, that features 280 indigenous artworks.