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Blogging the GIA
Posted: October 22, 2009

The annual Grantmakers in the Arts conference has long been a closed affair -- gathering foundations and funders for several days of discussion, workshops, and panels to inform their work. The reasons for the closed circle are obvious: Funders can speak more freely about their challenges and opportunities if they're aren't being swarmed by potential grantees. Plus, as a community of practice, they can benefit from reasonably pure peer-to-peer connections.

Nonmembers can come if they're invited (I've been to two of them, which makes me cool). But otherwise it's a bit like Fight Club and its first rule. Which is why it's rather nice to have a blogger on-site this year, in the form and phrases of Ian David Moss of the Createquity blog. Ian engaged the tension of blogging from a closed conference in one of his posts:

The conference is traditionally closed to all but staff of grantmaking organizations and invited speakers. In addition, there is a strict policy against solicitation of any kind... The result is that the conference creates, as GIA board member Janet Rodriguez characterized it, a ''safe space'' for the sharing of ideas among colleagues. However, at the only major national convening for arts funders every year, this strategy can also remove the possibility of healthy confrontation in a field in which getting honest feedback can be a challenge.

Lots of great summaries and perspectives. Although I'm rather eagerly awaiting the reports from the morning workshop entitled ''The Future and Our Role in Shaping It'' where Ian was not invited. If ever there was a topic for funders to engage with transparency, openess, and full-on critical engagement, that's it.

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