For the month of May, GIA’s photo banner features work supported by the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC).
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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 Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation Board of Trustees recently approved more than $2.8 million in grants toward an equitable and just New Jersey. The grants include more than $350,000 in new Imagine a New Way grants, "representing Dodge’s latest step towards our commitment to becoming an anti-racist organization and centering racial equity and justice in our work," according to the announcement.
March 2021, 121 pages. Grantmakers in the Arts, 522 Courtlandt Avenue, 1st Floor, Bronx, NY 10451.https://art.coop/.
"Amidst both a catastrophic pandemic and calls for reformed funding practices (especially in support of BIPOC communities), philanthropic giving to arts and culture provides a unique opportunity for funders to reevaluate their funding, evaluation, and decision-making processes," writes Michael Sy Uy at the Center for Effective Philanthropy's blog.
Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) seeks a consulting partner. The consultant would partner with GIA to bring together cohorts of public-sector colleagues around common themes and strategize how to address their challenges and opportunities in supporting the arts toward racial justice in public sector practice and policy. The Learning Lab (name subject to change) could include prepared curricula, guest speakers, facilitated presentation of case studies and iterations of solutions.
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.
In William Faulkner’s novel, As I Lay Dying, a young character by the name of Vardaman is allowed to believe that his “mother is a fish,” because no one takes the time to tell him that his mother is dead. Instead he associates what he witnesses with the reality he understands within a highly dysfunctional family. In the novel, he repeats, “fish. fish. fish.” Similarly, I would offer that we are currently operating in a highly dysfunctional philanthropic family. I believe in the potential of our work.
As with many of our foundation peers, the Barr Foundation has been grappling with what 2020 demands of us. This year has brought a global pandemic with devastating health and economic impacts as well as the fraying of civil discourse and public trust in government and democracy. Simultaneously, our country is facing a long overdue national reckoning with systemic racism and anti-Blackness. At Barr, this is all leading us to ask ourselves some fundamental questions: How do we best live out our values? How do we advance our philanthropic mission in this context?