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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American artists are still emerging from a bumptious cycle of structural downs and ups and institutional changes. Since the watershed of the culture wars in the early 1990s, diverse publics and legislative bodies have questioned artists’ purposes and contributions. Supporters — patrons, funders, friends — have scrambled to help them survive. In ways that may be a great blessing, an older, constraining preoccupation with artistic excellence and peer-judged grants has eroded. More inclusive notions of who artists are and of their many missions are taking root.
As a writer who often ponders music and its many audiences, I spend a lot of time thinking about how some artists thrive, while others don’t, in places far from their first home. As listeners, members of an audience, we hear something that feels real, powerful, to us, and we feel connected to the experience of someone who may seem not much like us. From this experience we have a single urgent response: how can we share this with the world? You’ve got to hear this…
“As this has never been done before, we have no idea what we’re doing today,” Joanna Haigood half-joked at the launch of Paseo, less a walking tour than a movable, danceable feast, a peripatetic block party that, for one delightful hour, would twist through the South Bronx neighborhoods of Hunts Point and Longwood.
“Theatres are the best way to keep people from the arts.”
— Simon Dove, Utrecht Festival, Dance/USA Forum, January 2011
— Simon Dove, Utrecht Festival, Dance/USA Forum, January 2011
Why will some people engage with art in one setting, but not another? For example, why will someone watch great drama on television at home, but never darken the door of a theater? Why will someone listen to classical music in a place of worship, but not a concert hall?
Strategies for funding individual artists can often resemble the principles and policies of trickle-down economics. Grants to arts organizations secure the physical plant and operations of those organizations, allowing them to offer artists the opportunity to present their work, to be seen and heard — at which point the obligation to the artists is fulfilled. This model does not acknowledge that artists and the things they make defy supply-and-demand economics.
This keynote speech was delivered by choreographer Margaret Jenkins at the Dance/USA Annual Conference in June 2009, in Houston, Texas in a session titled “Finding the Future: Creative Sustainability in Uncertain Times.”
Originally a nautical term, battening down was a procedure to safeguard ships against bad weather. The crew would prepare for an impending storm by fastening canvas over doorways and hatches. Now in the arts, it is a time to take a few deep breaths and batten down the hatches.
How are artists weathering the economic downturn? Artist Trust wanted to take the pulse of the Washington State artist community and to consider what programmatic solutions Artist Trust and others might offer. Between March 15 and April 15, 2009 nearly 700 artists responded to an online survey. The survey was not designed to collect data for quantitative analysis; rather, it was conducted as a way to gain an informal snapshot of artists’ personal situations.
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