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Sundance Institute has announced a new initiative for films and emerging media projects exploring stories related to the environment, conservation and climate change. These grants to support new projects are led by founding support from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and include additional support from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Kendeda Fund, Discovery Channel, Code Blue Foundation and the Joy Family Foundation.

What can we learn about supporting Native and Tribal artists, communities, and arts organizations? Hear about some insightful efforts and practical advice that have emerged from fundersworking in Native and tribal communities. We will hear from two funders, from a private foundation and a public foundation, on how they are contributing to strong and meaningful support for arts and cultures of Native America. Due to unforeseen circumstances, Susan Jenkins is no longer able to present at this session.

Welcome to the Grantmakers in the Arts Podcast, featuring interviews with leaders in arts funding, the cultural community, intersecting sectors - like arts and health or narrative change - and artists. These short podcasts are designed to easily fit into a busy schedule and offer concise sector insights for grantmakers.

The National League of Cities has released a new report examining the maker movement across major U.S. cities. How Cities Can Grow the Maker Movement summarizes the characteristics of the maker movement, how the movement has grown, how local governments have been involved, and the challenges faced. The report also makes recommendations on how city policymakers can support the movement locally.

What comes to mind when you hear the phrase cultural policy? Given the GIA Reader’s audience, I imagine answers that run the gamut from dry-as-dust studies to brilliant proposals for weaving new cultural fabric.

But in my role as Chief Policy Wonk for the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture (USDAC), when I set out to write about our new generative cultural policy proposals in An Act of Collective Imagination: The First Two Years of the USDAC’s Action Research, I had a whole different audience in mind: people who may never have heard the phrase before.

At October’s GIA preconference “Measuring Impact and Translating Value: Support for Individual Artists,” more than six dozen funders convened to share their experiences supporting individual artists and to ponder how to gauge and communicate the results. The Jerome Foundation’s Eleanor Savage and Tucson Pima Arts Council’s Roberto Bedoya shepherded an agenda that included five artists speaking about their work and careers.

Introduction: Georgia Men

“Black people did not come back from Georgia.”

“A man or woman that had learned that they might be taken south might do anything.”

“A man who had to see his son stand naked before buyers might do anything.”

Over eighteen months, the California Community Foundation (CCF) provided seed grants as incentives for five small and midsized arts organizations to build capital reserves through its pilot program, Building Equity in the Arts (2012–14). The program’s goals were for these organizations to raise a reserve fund, to create a cash reserve policy, and to evidence an increase in their fund balance. While a seemingly straightforward challenge, the building of cash reserves required a great deal more than simple development and reallocation of resources.

Art is not magic; most artists are not all that different from other people. However, many of them developed a skill or asset that most of us haven’t: a fascination for the undercurrent in our society, in our social encounters, in our practices, in our organizations.
 —  Jaap Warmenhoven, Stanford Social Innovation Review