philanthropy
Annals of Philanthropy: GIA 2010 Conference Blog 6: Cook It Up
This is my sixth and final post about the Grantmakers in the Arts 2010 conference, where I was invited to take part as a live blogger. It was tremendous fun: I got to write morning, noon, and night, which is my preferred type of ecstatic meditation. It was also a perfect antidote to the anxiety I sometimes feel when thrown into a sea of contacts and expected to network. Usually, the first time someone I'm talking to scans the room for a conversation-partner with more status, my heart sinks. This time, it was all just material. I've gotten lots of great response from readers already, a writer's dream. Now I want to do it more, so if you're planning a conference that needs up-to-the-minute blog commentary, let's talk.
Annals of Philanthropy: GIA 2010 Conference Blog 5: Prove It
On Tuesday, I attended a Grantmakers in the Arts conference presentation on "Participatory Arts and Community Health: Challenges and Opportunities," organized by Amy Kitchener of the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. It began with presentations on exemplary projects braiding art with individual and community well-being, offered by Maria Rosario Jackson of the Urban Institute, Beatriz Solis of The California Endowment; Josephine Ramirez of The James Irvine Foundation; Alaka Wali of The Field Museum; and Christine Dunford of Lookingglass Theatre and The Field Museum. They were so fiercely articulate that when I heard the Catalyst Quartet play Mu Kkubo Ery’Omusaalaba so beautifully at lunchtime, my mind skipped back to that group of women asserting art's bond with well-being: different instruments, same story.
Funder as Supplicant
Artists and arts organizations are owed the respect from funders to be treated professionally as peers. With candor and directness, I find these conversations to be substantive and informative as potential grantee and grantor learn more about each other’s work.
