Press Room and Announcements

Grantmakers in the Arts is the membership association of over 300 foundations, public agencies, and nonprofits from across the nation that are united in their support for the arts as a reflection of their belief that arts and culture are what make us fully human.

Grantmakers in the Arts stands in support of Alaska State Council on the Arts (ASCA) and encourages the state legislature and Governor’s office to restore the agency at prior funding levels in FY 2021.

Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) seeks a consulting partner with whom to strategize how to integrate the arts into policy and funding portfolios (such as health, education, safety, and the environment) that do not traditionally think about the arts as having a role. GIA holds the value of racial equity toward racial justice. Therefore, in addition to incorporating arts strategies and allies into these portfolios, GIA is also interested in how arts and culture can help change these existing systems to make them more racially and culturally just.

GIA has published an online resource for those working in arts education so they understand the resources and leverage support going toward quality arts and arts education at the state, district, and school level.

New York, NY — October 29, 2018. Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) has released an online state-by-state guide on how States are using their federal funds under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) to support arts education and arts programming in K-12 schools in the United States.

GIA commissioned a reflection on changes in arts and culture public and private funding over the past decades in the United States. The result is “Arts Funding at Twenty-Five:  What Data and Analysis Continue to Tell Funders about the Field,” a comprehensive report by researcher Steven Lawrence that also laid the ground for GIA’s first webinar of the year on this subject.

SEATTLE AND NEW YORK — Edwin Torres, deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, has been selected by the Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) board of directors as the organization’s new president & CEO. Torres will become GIA’s third CEO after a national search for a successor to current CEO Janet Brown, who will step down at the end of 2017.

SEATTLE – Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) is pleased to announce the recent election of three new members of its board of directors. Jaime Dempsey, deputy director of Arizona Commission on the Arts; Ken May, executive director of South Carolina Arts Commission; and Sharnita C. Johnson, arts program director of The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation have each been elected for a three-year term beginning January 2017.

SEATTLE — Janet Brown, president and CEO of Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA), has announced that she will step down from her leadership role in the organization as of December 31, 2017. Grantmakers in the Arts is a national association of public and private arts funders and provides members with resources and leadership to support artists and arts organizations. Brown has been CEO of GIA since January 1, 2009.

SEATTLE — Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) has released an expansion of its landmark Racial Equity in Arts Philanthropy Statement of Purpose, providing resources, recommendations, and actionable steps to assist grantmakers in advancing racial equity in arts philanthropy. As a growing number of funding institutions begin to examine the history and impacts of systemic racism across the sector, GIA serves as a hub for arts funders participating in this work.