Around the horn: GIA recovery edition

ART AND THE GOVERNMENT Twitter, Facebook, and now the Minnesota Orchestra: everyone’s going public these days. State legislators announced a bill last week to save the troubled ensemble and gauge public support for its continuation by making it “a community-owned entity in which any individual or group could buy stock.” MUSICAL CHAIRS Robert Vagt, theRead More

GIA 2013: Making Room for the New

I have now been to the Grantmakers in the Arts Conference five times. I sort of can’t believe I’m writing that — it simultaneously makes me feel old and very, very lucky. I’ve written about my experiences there now four of those five times; you can find my wrap-ups for 2009, 2010, 2011, and ofRead More

Systemic Change in a Pointillist World – Questions from GIA 2013

I approached the 2013 Grantmakers in the Arts conference as an opportunity to revisit my roots while stepping out of my comfort zone. I grew up in the Philadelphia area and my first job out of graduate school was in grantmaking. Since then I have been living and breathing arts education. I arrived last weekRead More

Supporting Excellence in the Arts – Lessons from GIA 2013

To this newcomer, the 2013 Grantmakers in the Arts conference in Philadelphia was a whirlwind tour through dozens of ideas and themes that have currency among arts funders, from creative placemaking to creativity and aging, from combatting racism in our own practice to ensuring all students receive a robust arts education. A few days afterRead More

Video-blogging from GIA: Day 3

Our third and final Grantmakers in the Arts conference video blog is our meatiest yet, covering curation as a moral imperative, rethinking the grant panel, expanding outside of our arts silos, and the nature of radical change. Oh, and there is some gratuitous giggling at the end. We’ve had a great time in Philadelphia thisRead More

Video-blogging from GIA: Day 1

As a special treat to celebrate the Createquity editorial team’s convergence on Philadelphia for the Grantmakers in the Arts conference, we decided to try out a new format: video. In this inaugural go-round, we discuss the arts education preconference, networking, and our session selection strategy. We’re going to try to create and post two moreRead More

Around the horn: just another government shutdown edition

ART AND THE GOVERNMENT The public has spoken: polling released in late September shows 75% of Detroiters oppose cutting pensions and 78% oppose selling artwork from the Detroit Institute of Arts to ease the city’s financial troubles. Meanwhile, the DIA is pitching a long-shot plan to Michigan Governor Rick Snyder that would direct significant state funding toRead More

Around the horn: Angela Merkel edition

ART AND THE GOVERNMENT With a rare, wide-open mayoral race underway, Boston’s arts community has come together to assert some political sway of its own. The new advocacy coalition MassCreative organized a nine-candidate forum that actually pushed back a televised debate. The primary is today. North Carolina’s Randolph County just banned Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man from school libraries followingRead More

New York, Philly, DC, Harrisburg

The new school year has started, and you know what that means: conferences and talks galore! For whatever reason 2013 has had me burning up the rails and roads of the Northeast, and that trend continues into September and October. September 27 Town Hall: State of NYC Dance Snapshot and Trends organized by Dance/NYC 92ndRead More