Grantmakers in the Arts

After twenty-four years as the only executive director of the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture (Commission), Victoria Hamilton will step down at the end of this month. San Diego was a very different place when Hamilton arrived from Santa Barbara in 1988 to head up the newly formed Commission and her impact and influence have reverberated throughout the community. Today, it is a vibrant cultural destination with a fair and transparent funding process that benefits over 120 arts and culture organizations.

Hamilton has earned national recognition by forging strategic alliances, empowering volunteer leadership boards, and advancing an entrepreneurial approach to innovative arts and culture programs and partnerships.

The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) has released a report on the “Strengthening the Bones” convening held in the fall of 2011 that brought together over 100 individuals representing a cross section of arts services organizations, cultural centers, museums, artists and artist collectives, foundation and government funding agencies to learn and build around the community of Native art.

With extraordinarily wide-spread destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, grantmakers across the country will be looking to help with the cleanup and rebuilding.

Grantmakers in the Arts will be aggregating resources and information for funders and others interested in supporting hurricane recovery efforts. Our goal is to serve as a conduit for information for our members and constituents.

Foundations are using project related investments (PRIs) and mission related investments (MRIs) to stimulate growth in Detroit, where there is a specific need for investment capital. Writing for the Nonprofit Quarterly, Rick Cohen argues for the ability of foundations to prudently underwrite MRIs and PRIs, using as examples work in this area by The Kresge Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and others.

Chorus America's annual survey of the operations of choruses, the Chorus Operations Survey Report includes more than 40 different analyses, from number of board meetings to board giving, from ticket pricing to chorus dues amounts, from accompanist pay practices to marketing efficiency. The 2012 report features data from the 2010-2011 season.

Arts groups in Detroit will share nearly $20 million donated by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, including $9 million to be awarded through a communitywide contest to boost the city's best arts ideas, the foundation announced Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the USC Brain and Creativity Institute and Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA) have announced a longitudinal research collaboration to investigate the emotional, social and cognitive effects of musical training on childhood brain development.

The five-year research project, Effects of Early Childhood Musical Training on Brain and Cognitive Development, will offer USC researchers an important opportunity to provide new insights and add rigorous data to an emerging discussion about the role of early music engagement in learning and brain function.

By Janet Brown from her blog Better Together

Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) met in Miami October 14-17 to share knowledge, debate issues and discover new pathways to supporting artists and arts organizations. As with all convenings, I wanted to be everywhere and hear everything. That’s the frustration of having diverse programming that speaks to a diverse audience. And we are a very diverse group. I wasn’t able to be in every room but here are some personal highlights.