Extensive research has demonstrated what those close to the arts, culture, and humanities sector already know: the health of the sector is intertwined with the health of our communities. In addition to cultural enrichment, arts, culture, and humanities nonprofits create jobs, support economic growth, and contribute to community revitalization.
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The GIA Library is an information hub that includes articles, research reports, and other materials covering a wide variety of topics relevant to the arts and arts funding. These resources are made available free to members and non-members of GIA. Users can search by keyword or browse by category for materials to use in research and self-directed learning. Current arts philanthropy news items are available separately in our news feed - News from the Field.
In the wake of the worst global economic recession in living memory, the creative industries sector has emerged as a powerful engine for economic growth and social, environmental, and cultural sustainability. With growing concern over the staggering amounts of funding now being directed toward social impact initiatives globally and the effectiveness of those investments, perhaps the time has come for gatekeepers to consider adding the creative industries to the short list of investment-worthy target sectors.
The opportunities to connect communities through culture and to use that cultural engagement to educate one another are simultaneously compelling and challenging to cultural foundations and philanthropists. Recent reports and research provide strong arguments and preliminary insights into ways that culture can advance engagement across boundaries, both geographic and societal. But the most challenging efforts may be those intended to connect the United States to Muslim populations abroad.
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Redefining Expectations for Place-based Philanthropy (10.2 Mb)
This article discusses how The California Endowment has used a midcourse strategic review to refine Building Healthy Communities, aiming to provide insight for other place-based initiatives and to add to the body of knowledge about how to support transformative community change.
The struggle to ensure that art work is recognized as real work and compensated accordingly is an essential one, and it continues through the efforts of art collectives and organizations, the actions of artists, and countless individual decisions to accept or reject engrossing but unpaid jobs.
— Elyse Mallouk, “On Laboring for Love”
— Elyse Mallouk, “On Laboring for Love”
The Cultural Data Project (CDP) was launched in fall 2004 as a statewide, web-based data collection system for arts and cultural organizations by a group of Pennsylvania grantmakers and arts advocates, including the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, the Heinz Endowments, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew), The Pittsburgh Foundation, and the William Penn Foundation.
In January I had the privilege to attend the Future Aesthetics 2.0 retreat, co-organized by Marc Bamuthi Joseph, director of Performing Arts of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and James Kass, executive director of Youth Speaks. Participating were twenty-three performance-based artists, Helicon Collaborative partners Holly Sidford and Alexis Frasz, and Cheryl Ikemiya from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, which funded the project through its Fund for National Projects.
This article, examining the ecology of funders’ use of intermediaries and regranting organizations, came about as a direct offshoot of GIA’s Research Initiative on Support for Individual Artists, begun in 2011. As the research team worked to map the pathways that support followed from funder to artist, a complex map of options and routes began to emerge, and intermediaries and regranters were often part of that picture. It became increasingly clear that this was an essential and important part of the overall system.
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Building a Resilient Sector (9.2Mb)
One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore.
— André Gide