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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.
By Janet Brown from her blog Better Together:
Over the past few years, Grantmakers in the Arts has identified four content areas that reflect core values and are the basis for much of our work. They are:
- Arts education
- Racial equity in philanthropy
- Financial health of the nonprofit arts sector (capitalization)
- Support for individual artists
For several years my brother, Alex Laing, principal clarinetist for the Phoenix Symphony, and I, senior program officer at the Heinz Endowments, have been having often intense conversations, where my brother probed the thinking behind Heinz Endowments’ grantmaking that placed an emphasis on African and African diasporic culture, distressed neighborhoods, and teaching artists. Heinz Endowments, having taken the advice of Anasa Troutman of the consulting firm Lion and Butterfly, has begun to call this work transformative arts education.
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.
The current issue of Foundation Review from the Johnson Center at Grand Valley State University has a focus on racial equity for foundations. A subscription is needed to see the full contents online, but executive summaries are available to all.
An article from Foundation Review authored by Gary L. Cunningham, Northwest Area Foundation; Marcia L. Avner, University of Minnesota-Duluth and Romilda Justilien, BCT Partners explores the multiple approaches that foundations can use to advance racial equity and prosperity. “The Urgency of Now: Foundations’ Role in Ending Racial Inequity” is built on the premise that if we remain on the current trajectory with no significant change in the socioeconomic position of low income people of color, everyone will pay a price.
When the Network of Ensemble Theaters (NET) set out to produce MicroFest USA: Revitalize, Reconnect, Renew, we wanted to look at the positive impact that art and artists were having on communities around the country. Our intent was twofold: to acknowledge and advance the pioneering and current work of ensemble theaters committed to community-based practice and positive community change (placemaking), and to foster mutual learning with a wider spectrum of artists, cultural workers, and community partners also contributing to community well-being and social change (placemakers).
Altarum Institute and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation have released a report detailing the economic impact of racism, and the benefits of advancing racial equity as the demography of our nation changes.
By Janet Brown, from her blog Better Together:
Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) initiated discussions among a group of social justice funders a year ago in an effort to begin to understand structural racism and to analyze how institutionalized racism may affect arts philanthropy.