Grantmakers in the Arts is currently seeking session proposals for the 2019 GIA Conference in Denver, Colorado. The conference, which will take place Sunday, October 13 – Wednesday, October 16, 2019, is the largest annual convening of arts funders, and an opportunity for those in the field to learn from each other. 

Session proposals are now being accepted from GIA members.Grantmakers in the Arts will continue to foreground its funding focus areas: arts education, capitalization, racial equity, support for individual artists, and funding at the intersection of arts and other portfolios. We also encourage session proposals that explore Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality – exploring the impact of overlaps between identities such as between race, gender, sexuality, disability, and others such as discussions of the #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, Just Transition movements and how they manifest in the field of arts and cultural funding.

More information on the session proposals here.

Henry Timms, current head of the 92nd Street Y, has been tapped to lead Lincoln Center. He will be taking over as president of the nation's largest performing arts complex, which includes the Metropolitan Opera, the Philharmonic, and the New York City Ballet. 

He is taking over after Lincoln Center has seen two different presidents come and go in only a few years. He will be tasked with seeing Lincoln Center through large projects which have stalled in recent year, including the renovation of Geffen Hall. 

Read the full article here.

Foundation Center and GuideStar have merged into one organization called Candid. Foundation Center provides resources and tools to nonprofits including training and lists of funding opportunities. GuideStar provides information about nonprofits to prospective donors, foundations, and nonprofit leaders. 

Together, the two organizations aim to connect nonprofits, foundations, and donors to resources, tools, and information through their online platform. "Every year, millions of nonprofits spend trillions of dollars around the world," their new website states. "Candid finds out where that money comes from, where it goes, and why it matters."

Organizations can use the platform to research nonprofits, find funding, get verified, and stay up to date on funding and social issues.

Read more about the merger and visit the new website here.

Teaching artists in Los Angeles found ways to support their certified teacher colleagues in the recent Los Angeles Unified School District strike. The strike, which lasted for six days and ended on January 22, called for smaller class sizes, better services for students, and better pay for more than 30,000 teachers.

In a post on their blog, the Teaching Artists Guild stated their support of the strike saying that "onsite, during school-day arts programming taught with teaching artist partners should be canceled during the strike," in solidarity with the district teachers. Jean Johnstone, the executive director of the Teaching Artist Guild, told Hyperallergic, "this is a new area for us. We’re not a union, but we want to do the right thing and stand by our colleagues who are striking.” A credentialed teacher needs to be present when teaching artists are in the classroom, so teaching artist programs were effectively on hold during the strike. 

Some teaching artists joined teachers on the picket line, including San Pedro-based visual artists Jayn Ghormley. Ghormley said, "teachers are my heroes. When they were striking, I needed to be with the teachers." Many organizations were less explicit in their support of the strike, saying they both supported teachers and saw the need for the district to find a financial balance. 

Marissa Sykes, a teaching artist at Inner-City Arts who works at the Creativity Lab, hopes the strike's benefits outweigh the disruption to their students' lives. "I want the students to know that their communities are behind them," she told Hyperallergic. "I’m excited for students to see their teachers being dedicated to fight for them.”

Read more in the Teaching Artist Guild blog post and the Hyperallergic Article. 

The Old Town School of Folk Music (Chicago, IL) has announced that executive director James "Bau" Graves is stepping down to retire. Graves is currently on medical leave following a hospitalization in November due to blockages in three coronary arteries, according to a release from the school. 

“It has been my honor and great privilege to serve Old Town School and its extended community for 11 years,” Graves wrote in a letter to the school’s staff. Rashida Phillips, the school's deputy director, will act as interim director. 

The school has recently been at the center of controversy over the proposed sale of one of its locations. Students and teachers rallied to save the building, and the school announced it will not list it for sale until March 31 in order to continue discussions with the community. 

Read the full story here.

The National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development released the results of a two-year long study, funded in part by the Wallace Foundation, examining the importance of social and emotional learning. The report makes key recommendations for improving education outcomes, rooted in the key finding that “social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic and academic development are deeply intertwined in the brain and in behavior."

Researchers recommend that schools utilize community-based partnerships, including arts, music, youth development, and mental health services, to improve outcomes for students.

Read more about the study and access the full report.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $2.2 million to the American Academy of Poets. Funding will be divided into two grants, one of which will start a new fellowship supporting poet laureates of US states, cities, territories, or tribal nations. The second grant will go to the Poetry Coalition, a national alliance of more than 20 poetry organizations, to support the coalition's work and to fund part-time paid positions at select member organizations. 

Elizabeth Alexander, the president of the Mellon Foundation and a poet herself, said it was the largest donation the foundation has ever awarded for poetry. 

Read the full article here.

 

A new report from the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, funded in part by the Wallace Foundation, explores social, emotional, and academic development in young people. Recognizing that academic learning and social and emotional learning are intertwined, the report makes key reccommendations about creating visions for student success, changing institutions to teach students social, emotional, and cognitive skills, and aligning resources across partnerships with schools, families, and communities.

Researchers also reccommend bringing assets of community organizations, including arts and music, into schools to support the development of the whole child.

You can read more about the report here, and download the full report here.

Luis Garden Acosta, founder of the influential Williamsburg-based community organization El Puente, passed away on January 9. According to an account from local historian Geoff Cobb, "Acosta was the founder and president of El Puente, a nationally celebrated, Brooklyn based, community/youth development organization. A man of great passion, Acosta was so active in a variety of fields that he defied easy identification. The community organizer and advocate for the disadvantaged was also an environmental leader, a housing activist, and an educator, but he was something even bigger than these various roles. Acosta embodied the fighting spirit of the Hispanic community in North Brooklyn and his death leaves a massive void."

El Puente has played a significant role in shaping South Williamsburg and creating a model for community-based youth development organizations. The organizationa is "grounded in a holistic approach to leadership development for young people and their families, [bridging] the worlds of health, education, and the arts with activism and community empowerment."

Read more about the legacy of Luis Garden Acosta here.

This week, The San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) became the first department within San Francisco city government to adopt a formal racial equity policy. According to KQED, "the statement and plan set guidelines for preventing workplace discrimination and inequity, such as earmarking resources for racial equity and collecting and analyzing demographic data to improve the racial equity impact of SFAC programs."

The statement opens with an argument for why focusing on racial equity is crucial for SFAC: "The San Francisco Arts Commission is committed to creating a city where all artists and cultural workers have the freedom, resources and platform to share their stories, art and culture and where race does not predetermine one’s success in life. We also acknowledge that we occupy traditional and unceded Ohlone land. Fueled by these beliefs, we commit to addressing the systemic inequities within our agency, the City and County of San Francisco and the broader arts and culture sector. This work requires that we focus on race as we confront inequities of the past, reveal inequities of the present and develop effective strategies to move all of us towards an equitable future."

Read the full article here.