“The Open Society Foundations announced recently the launch of its Culture and Art program, which ‘seeks to advance diverse artistic practices and strengthen locally-led cultural spaces around the world through grantmaking, capacity building, and convening power.'” – Grantmakers in the Arts

“It takes some courage to come to a conference of funders and tell them what they do wrong. In no uncertain terms. Especially if you are an organization that could use their money. But there was a lot of that at the Tuesday morning panel titled: Expressions for Justice: Grantmaking in the arts for systems change. The exchange was open, and maybe the most direct of the entire GIA conference.” (For the main web page of the 2019 GIA conference, click here. For the full GIA 2019 conference blog, click here.) – Grantmakers in the Arts

“The ADA is often mentioned as some kind of total solution to a still inaccessible world. But as was pointed out at the beginning of Monday’s panel, Variations on a Theme: Funding Disability Aesthetics, the ADA is the bare minimum. It is often a box half-heartedly checked … The ADA exists and the world is still inaccessible, and that includes the art world — a tangible and theoretical space that touts itself as radical. But there is nothing radical about inaccessibility.” (For the main web page of the 2019 GIA conference, click here. For the full GIA 2019 conference blog, click here.) – Grantmakers in the Arts

“The Black Art Futures Fund was a topic of great curiosity at the 2019 GIA conference, if only because it seemed to the GIA crowd that founder DéLana R.A. Dameron is on to something new with her start-up funding effort. And so the session titled Our Beloved Community: Collaborative grantmaking, which formally introduced the project to attendees drew an eager audience, even though it started at 8 a.m. Wednesday morning. The room was packed.” (For the main web page of the 2019 GIA conference, click here. For the full GIA 2019 conference blog, click here.) – Grantmakers in the Arts

Bree Davies: “When I saw the conference workshop Innovations in Artist Housing: Inspiration from South America to address the ‘Soho Effect’, I was stoked. … [But] the panel on artist housing did not include a single artist, let alone an artist impacted by — or blamed for — the ‘SoHo Effect.’ Instead, the panel physically resembled many urban planning panels I’ve had to painfully sit through — upper middle class white people who want to talk about housing, mostly in terms of real estate values and sexy urban design. They did not want to talk about the realities just outside the windows of the room I began to feel trapped in.” (For the main web page of the 2019 GIA conference, click here. For the full GIA 2019 conference blog, click here.) – Grantmakers in the Arts

“I think in many ways we as a sector have pigeonholed foundation program officers. We have internalized this idea that their role is one of micromanager and compliance officer, whose jobs are mainly to ensure nonprofits align and comply, even with ineffective or harmful practices and strategies set by foundations. This old-school default role prevents POs from being authentic allies and partners with pivotal responsibilities that could greatly enhance our work. It’s time for our sector to completely reimagine the role of foundation program officers. Here’s what this may look like, in no particular order, based on experience I’ve had with the program officers who have been the most helpful.” – Nonprofit AF

“It’s time for cultural philanthropy to get more creative. … A small-but-growing number of funders are working with arts and culture organizations and individual donors to address inequities at the community level in creative, systemic ways. Here’s a look at three steps funders can take to drive change toward more inclusive arts philanthropy, along with some examples from the field.” – Stanford Social Innovation Review

Vu Le: “Our sector talks a lot about grants. … There are endless articles and workshops on how to increase your chances to get grants. And many foundations, to their credit, have been working to streamline their grant applications. But maybe we are not having the right conversations. Maybe the question is not ‘how do we improve grant applications’ but rather ‘are grant applications the best way for funders to determine who should be funded? Have they ever been? Is this tool broken or even harmful, and if so, can we afford to keep using it?'” – Nonprofit AF

Phil Chan, co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface: “What is emerging is a series of best practices that any performing arts organization can employ when staging works from the Western canon which may contain outdated representations of race. Many of these ideas can be applied and shared across performing art forms.” – Americans for the Arts

“When artists activate the social imagination and cultural practices bring people together, when new images and events claim or create public space, and when cultural organizing mobilizes people to action, art disrupts and influences social and political dynamics and discourse in the public realm. And, when funders shape programs to support this work, they too are influencers and activists in the public realm. … And, as funders step into the public realm along with the artists they support, they must consider their own implications and risk factors.” – Grantmakers in the Arts