Before the house lights dim at a production of Romeo and Juliet, I look for myself and I am delighted to find myself as I was many years ago: A teenaged boy sitting by himself. I recognize him because he keeps checking the number on his ticket against the number on the armrest. All in all, he is pleased with his seat. He wears a sweater and tie. He reads his program with the intensity I used similarly to scrutinize the actors’ biographies, the director’s notes, and the advertisements for after-theater dining.
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In late January GIA polled its 309 member organizations about their organization's responses to the economic downturn. 117 (38%) members responded, which provides a healthy sample of the membership.
Members reported their expected 2009 arts grantmaking would likely compare to 2008 as follows:
- 41% expected that 2009 would be the same as 2008.
- 13% expected that it would be reduced to 90% of 2008.
- 12% expected that it would be reduced to 80% of 2008.
- 11% expected that it would be reduced to 70% of 2008.
Historical data do not mean anything in this situation. There is no blueprint and there is no network. We are doing the best we can with a combination of hard facts and intuition. Every line item is up for grabs; every $1,000 is material. How we feel about it all depends on which newspaper we read that morning.
Managing Director, large performing arts group
Introduction
Many of the feature articles in this issue offer tools for responding to GIA Executive Director Janet Brown's call to speak up, to not sit silently in the back but to stand up and illustrate or make the case for why arts and culture matters.
2008, 64 pages. Arts Council England, 14 Great Peter Street, London SW1P 3NQ, UK, 0845-300-6590, www.artscouncil.org.uk
http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/documents/publications/
phpvMEmeh.pdf
2008, 327 pages.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr, 1849 French critic and writer
Between 2006 and 2008, the Social Impact of the Arts Project, a research group at the University of Pennsylvania (SIAP), collaborated with The Reinvestment Fund (TRF), a community development financial institution, on an investigation of the creative sector's potential contribution to neighborhood economic and community development.
Is a trend developing that favors drawing foundation leaders from the for-profit sector rather than from philanthropy or the nonprofit sector? If so, does it change senior grantmaking staff's challenges and opportunities? Would a more corporate view of private philanthropy affect how foundations view the arts?
A conversation between essayist John Rockwell and Linda Breneman (Breneman Jaech Foundation) about cultural patronage today, from the perspectives of a journalist and an individual donor. Funders with varying relationships to living patrons, donors' estates, and philanthropic institutions chime in on how risky, enduring art is—or might be—supported.
Arts and education grantmakers at an historic gathering in Santa Fe in October of 2007 agreed on the need to forge a new vision for public education in the United States and to collectively explore how the arts can help shape and realize that vision.
Convened by Grantmakers in the Arts and Grantmakers for Education, more than 100 foundation representatives met formally for the first time under the aegis of their two affinity organizations to debate and discuss the role of the arts in education.