501(c)(3) non profit grantmaker

Arts Funding IV examines recent changes in arts grantmaking by one segment of private institutional donors — private and community foundations. While the larger, more fragmented arena of government and private support lies outside this investigation, it is nonetheless useful to place foundation support within this larger context. The following overview outlines the basic framework of private and public arts funding in the U.S. and discusses funding in relation to the overall financing of nonprofit arts groups.

Economic language and ideas have increasingly found their way into discussions of artistic value and cultural benefit. For better or for worse, the discipline of economics has been the lingua franca of public policy discourse for at least the past fifty years. Sometimes the terms resonate harshly on our ears. How do people in the world of arts and culture answer those who speak this language, who try to value cultural activity in terms of economic multipliers, cost-benefit analysis, quantitative outcome measures and, a current favorite, contingent valuation methodology?

Federal Support for Historic Preservation Fund on Downward Trajectory
In his fiscal year 2004 budget, President Bush proposed $67 million for the Historic Preservation Fund. The Fund is authorized at $150 million, but historically the Congress and Administration have provided in appropriations just one third of the authorized amount.

The Fund for Folk Culture, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has initiated a series of gatherings, supported by a grant from the NEA, to examine topics relevant to folk arts and traditional culture. The first of those meetings was held in its home town at the Wheelwright Museum on March 13 and 14 to discuss the needs and concerns of individual artists in the folk and traditional arts field.

2002, 60 pages. American Assembly, 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 456, New York, NY 10115, 212-870-3500, amassembly@columbia.edu

Art, Technology, & Intellectual Property provides an excellent summary of intellectual property questions faced by the arts community, both nonprofit and for-profit.

November 2002, 72 pages. Human Interaction Research Institute, 5435 Balboa Boulevard, Suite 115, Encino, CA 91316, 818-386-9137, HIRILA@aol.com

Partnership as an Art Form: What Works and What Doesn't in Nonprofit Arts Partnerships should be required reading for funders who are encouraging their grantees to work more closely together in these difficult economic times.

2003, 79 pages. Department of Art Education, Ohio State University, 128 North Oval Mall, Room 258, Columbus, OH 43210, 614-292-5649

This final report on Transforming Education Through the Arts Challenge (TETAC) is more than a compilation of the results of a five-year initiative to link comprehensive approaches to arts education with national and local school reform efforts.

2002, 79 pages. RAND Corporation , 1700 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 (310) 451-7002, order@rand.org

2003, 130 pages.

September 2002, 292 pages, $24.95, paper. Center for Urban Policy Research, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. 732-932-3133, ext 555, cuprbook@rci.rutgers.edu