Grantmakers in the Arts

David Byrne’s Graduation Speech Offers Troubling and Encouraging Advice for Students in the Arts
by Steve

From Open Culture:

How could David Byrne never have given a commencement address before? As an experienced public speaker, a well-known creator who has carved out his own cultural niche, an advocate of things (such as cycling) beloved among world-changing young people, the founder of a band with a surprising multi-generational appeal, and a man with no small command of Powerpoint, he’d seem to make an appealing choice indeed. His first commencement address ever came this year at the Columbia University School of the Arts.
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NEA Releases New Research Tool on Working Artists
by Steve

A new research resource from the National Endowment for the Arts gives statistical profiles of Americans who reported an artist occupation as their primary job, whether full-time, part-time, or self-employed. The dataset looks at artists in 11 distinct occupations, including actors; announcers; architects; art directors, fine artists, and animators; dancers and choreographers; designers; entertainers and performers; musicians; photographers; producers and directors; and writers and authors. Some tables offer data on employed artists in particular, while other tables measure all artists in the workforce, both employed and looking for work.

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Alliance for Justice Webinars
by Steve

Through its Bolder Advocacy initiative, Alliance for Justice seeks to promote an active role for nonprofits in influencing public policy and to help them navigate the rules. The following webinars are coming up this summer:

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The Overhead Dance: Transparency Part II
by Janet

By Janet Brown from her blog Better Together

In my early years as an arts administrator, I remember thinking it was best to keep grant applications simple in order to limit the questions that granters might have. One line I always left blank was “indirect costs.” I did this because it just seemed a good idea to make the application financials less complicated. But how wrong I was.

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Idea Entrepreneur: The New 21st Century Career
by Steve

From John Butman, writing for Harvard Business Review:

There is a new player emerging on the cultural and business scene today: the idea entrepreneur. Perhaps you are one yourself — or would like to be. The idea entrepreneur is an individual, usually a content expert and often a maverick, whose main goal is to influence how other people think and behave in relation to their cherished topic. These people don't seek power over others and they're not motivated by the prospect of achieving great wealth. Their goal is to make a difference, to change the world in some way.
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Grantmakers for Education Names New Executive Director
by Steve

Grantmakers for Education announced this week the appointment of Dr. Ana Tilton as its new executive director. Dr. Tilton brings 25 years of experience from across the educational spectrum, including serving as a superintendent, principal, director of curriculum assessment, researcher, and as chief academic officer for Denver Public Schools.

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Artists LeadOn
by Steve

Diana Aviv posts to her blog on the Independent Sector website five examples of artists leading society forward:

The South Africa I grew up in was a nation divided: four categories of people (“White”, “African”, “Coloured”, and “Asian”), four categories of schools and public services, a system tenaciously designed to guarantee whites the best of everything with few resources left for the others. As the ruling National Party tightened apartheid’s screws to restrict rights and prohibit protest, I watched my friends carted off, one-by-one, to jail for their resistence.
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Why Philanthropy Should Steam Ahead and Support the Creative Economy
by Steve

Claudia Jacobs — Associate Director, Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University — writes for Huffington Post:

If we are to actively enrich our communities, arts should not be a stepchild of science, technology, engineering or math (STEM). In New England alone, over 53,000 people are employed in the “creative economy” and that sector, if it were considered in the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS), which it is not, would rank just below the data and information sector and just ahead of the truck transportation sector, according to 2009 statistics compiled by the New England Foundation for the Arts.
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