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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.
The full transcript of this podcast is published below.
Explore the full GIA podcast.
Setting the Stage
With a population of over 2.3 million and one-in-four residents being foreign-born, Houston is the most ethnically diverse metro area in the nation. The city’s arts programs and cultural offerings are robust in number and breadth, and its vibrancy unfolds along the numerous bayous and highways. Most years see 11 to 16 million visitors traveling to the city for arts and cultural events. Houston’s nonprofit arts and culture sector, a $1.1 billion industry, employs more than 25,000 people.
Artist Distrust Open Letter, a group of artists, including three of the five AIA panelists, published an open letter capturing their experiences with the funder as being “inequitable, opaque, and unresponsive to community needs” with “long-held practices that have unjustly impacted Black, Indigenous, and otherwise racialized peoples.” Image courtesy of Artist Distrust.
Grantmakers in the Arts began work on capitalization in 2010. Ever since then we’ve debated not using the word “capitalization,” but it has prevailed. In our work, the term is synonymous with financial health and the resources needed to meet an organization’s mission. In 2010, GIA published recommendations for grantmakers regarding actions they could take that would improve the undercapitalized nature of the nonprofit arts sector.
Since the Ford Foundation’s institutional stabilization programs of the 1960s, arts funders have explored and implemented initiatives intended to promote the sustainability of arts organizations. Funding approaches, programs, and special terminology have been developed in support of the arts’ economic and social contributions to society. Artists and arts organizations are evaluated on the basis of their fiscal prudence and community contributions as well as artistic merit.
Fearless Journeys: Innovation in Five American Orchestras is the report of a 2009 study, funded by MetLife Foundation, which explored and documented five examples of promising innovative practices in American orchestras. This is the first formal attempt to define and to understand the organizational factors that support innovation in orchestras.
As funders we have three main challenges: first, getting a handle on the extent and impact of the recession; second, exerting leadership — being bold, positive, and opportunistic without being insensitive; and third — and most important — asking ourselves the same tough questions that we are asking grantees: how do we slip the vice-like grip of old mindsets and behaviors and adapt so we increase our relevance, resilience, and meaningful contributions to our community?
— Foundation President
— Foundation President
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.