On February 3, 2016, NEA staff and invited speakers introduced the white paper from the Summit on Creativity and Aging in America, which was hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Center for Creative Aging in May 2015. The summit brought together more than 70 experts to discuss the challenges and opportunities in the fields of healthy aging, lifelong learning in the arts, and design for aging communities. Speakers included NEA Accessibility Director Beth Bienvenu, NCCA Executive Director Gay Hanna, and 2015 White House Conference on Aging Director Nora Super.
Grantmakers in the Arts
by Steve
From Laura Zabel, writing for Stanford Social Innovation Review:
Springboard for the Arts, the nonprofit where I work, just gave away its oldest program and most reliable earned income stream. We took the curriculum from our artist-entrepreneur training course, packaged it into a free toolkit, and we’re giving it to anyone who wants to start and customize their own program. We did it to increase our impact. A community and economic development organization run by and for artists, our mission is to help artists make a living and a life, and to help communities connect to the creative power of artists.
by Steve
From Brandon Baker, writing for Philly Voice:
With a new mayoral administration comes a new Chief Cultural Officer in the form of Kelly Lee, a 49-year-old Germantown native who previously served as CEO of now-defunct Innovation Philadelphia, communications director for the Pennsylvania Convention Center and director of economic development for PECO. Lee succeeds Helen Haynes in the position and joins an office that is essentially still in its infancy, re-established by Mayor Michael Nutter in 2008. Its official role is to promote the city’s cultural scene to the world, develop it as an economic engine, provide resources to artists and provide access to the greatest number of Philadelphians possible though, its actual function is still in flux.
by Steve
In an article from the latest issue of GIA Reader, Rebecca Thomas — a long-time partner with GIA’s Capitalization Initiative — lays out some key lessons in change capital for grantmakers in Investing in Change: Ten Lessons for Cultural Grantmakers.
by Steve
From Claire Knowlton at Nonprofit Quarterly:
Big strides have been made recently in the acknowledgment that overhead ratios are poor indicators of an organization’s impact or financial efficiency. Although the movement toward outcomes-based measurement offers a promising alternative to understanding impact, very little has been done to truly shift the sector’s understanding of what it takes — or even means — for nonprofits to be financially efficient and adaptable. The myths and misinterpretations of the true full costs of delivering vital programs have contributed to a chronically fragile social infrastructure for our communities.
by Steve
The Summit on Creativity and Aging is a report on the May 2015 convening of more than 70 experts co-presented by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Center for Creative Aging (NCCA) that preceded the White House Conference on Aging, that was held July 2015. The report investigates three topics relevant to healthy aging: health and wellness and the arts, lifelong learning in the arts, and age-friendly community design.
by Steve
From John Hopewell, writing for Variety:
The Ford Foundation’s and Cannes Film Market’s networking mini-mart Doc Corner announced Tuesday a two year-partnership to raise global awareness on social justice, working against inequality. Driving to hike the profile, market networking and distribution of social justice docu features at Cannes, the initiative was first mooted months before Hollywood began worrying about an All White Oscars. That debate, however, will only serve to focus more attention on the groundbreaking Ford Foundation-Cannes new push. Partnership establishes a large presence at Cannes for the Ford Foundation’s five-year-old JustFilms, a film financing, social awareness and education program that has backed visual story tellers, new media projects and organizations that work to this end.
by Steve
Patti Hartigan of Boston magazine has a profile of the Barr Foundation:
Although the Barr Foundation has given out more than $710 million since 1999, chances are you’ve never heard of it. Until around 2010, donations were largely made on the condition of anonymity. Now that grants are given openly, Barr’s influence is finally visible. Established 29 years ago by Amos and Barbara Hostetter, who founded Continental Cablevision, it started as a kitchen-table family operation: Amos handled the investments, and Barbara managed the programs. In 2016, the foundation has assets totaling $1.6 billion and a mandate to focus its philanthropic endeavors on Boston and the region. Now, suddenly, you can’t turn around without coming across an organization or project bearing the Barr Foundation’s stamp of approval.