NY Ats Power Couple Profile

A little tidbit from New York Magazine on NY arts "power couple" Katherine Farley and Jerry Speyer. Just what does it mean to be an arts power couple??

http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/topic/57491/

House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee increases NEA funding

As reported by Americans for the Arts:

On June 10, the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which sets the initial funding level for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), approved a $15 million increase for the NEA in its FY 2010 spending bill, setting it on a path towards final House consideration. Chairman Norm Dicks (D-WA) has once again championed the arts and culture and proposed an increase in funding.

Currently funded at $155 million, this increase would bring the agency’s budget to $170 million. In his statement, Chairman Dicks referenced the Arts Advocacy Day hearings the subcommittee held as demonstrating that “the endowments are vital for preserving and encouraging America’s arts and cultural heritage.” On Arts Advocacy Day, Americans for the Arts presented a panel of witnesses before Chairman Dicks’ Appropriations Subcommittee calling for a significant increase in funding for the NEA. Witnesses included Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center Wynton Marsalis, singer-songwriter Josh Groban, legendary singer Linda Ronstadt, Reinvestment Fund CEO Jeremy Nowak, and Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert Lynch. Watch video from that panel here.

The FY 2010 Interior Appropriations bill will next go to full committee and then to the House floor for final consideration where your help may be needed to defend against floor amendments attempting to cut this increase. We must now put pressure on the Senate to match this funding level. Please take two minutes to visit the Americans for the Arts E-Advocacy Center to send a letter to your Members of Congress letting them know that the arts are important to you!

Arts & Culture giving down 6.4% in 2008

A report by The Giving USA Foundation says that charitable giving to arts/culture/humanities organizations was down 6.4% in 2008, higher than the average decline in nonprofit giving of 2%.

An article from the Associated Press summarizes the situation, saying that although the situation is bad, it was not unexpected and, actually, was not as bad as many feared it would be:

"Charitable giving by Americans fell by 2 percent in 2008 as the recession took root, only the second year-to-year decline in more than a half-century, according to an authoritative annual survey released Wednesday....

The last previous overall drop in giving was in 1987, the year of the record-shattering Black Monday stock market collapse.

The Giving USA Foundation, which has conducted the survey since 1956, expressed relief that the 2008 decrease was not worse, given that many Americans lost more than 2 percent of their wealth during the year.

However, the report underscored the daunting circumstances facing America's nonprofits, many of which have been forced to lay off staff and cut programs because of declining revenue."

Not surprisingly, Giving USA predicts that 2009 will continue to be difficult, which many of us nonprofit fundraisers could attest to.

Read the full article here and learn more about the report here

Government arts funding and the culture wars

Over at book/daddy, Jerome Weeks provides an insightful and informative review of Money for Art: The Tangled Web of Art and Politics in American Democracy. It's worth a read, both for his take on the book as well as his insights on the history of American funding for the arts. Read the first part of the article here.

"It's dead certain that our culture wars will rage again.

David A. Smith, a senior lecturer in history at Baylor University, does not actually make that prediction in his book, Money for Art: The Tangled Web of Art and Politics in American Democracy. But it's there. It's there because, according to Dr. Smith, the culture wars have never really ceased fire. Federal support of the arts has been the trigger for an argument, he believes, that has flared on and off practically since the origins of the republic. Dr. Smith's book is the first to study government arts funding in this light."

NALAC releases RFP for Central America cultural exchange grant program

National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Introduces New Transnational Cultural Remittances Grant Program

With support from the Ford Foundation, the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture has announced the introduction of a new competitive grant program.

The Transnational Cultural Remittances program is designed to increase understanding, support, and recognition of the cultural impact of continued migration of and connection between individuals in Mexico, Central America, and the United States. The program is available to individuals, collectives, and community-based organizations that are engaged in the practical exchange of culture through transnational community connections developed and maintained by culturally and economically linked communities.

The program seeks to identify exemplary cultural exchange projects that support grassroots artistic and cultural practices and strengthen social networks and economic justice across national boundaries. Projects demonstrating an ongoing connection between two or more of the following countries will be eligible for consideration to receive a competitive TCR grant in 2009 or 2010: Belize; Costa Rica; El Salvador; Guatemala; Honduras; Mexico; Nicaragua; Panama; and United States. Artists and non-governmental organizations in any of these countries may apply. Applicants do not have to include the United States to be considered.

Grants will range from $2,000 to $20,000.

For more information and complete guidelines, visit the NALAC Web site.

Contact:
Link to Complete RFP

Primary Subject: Arts and Culture
Geographic Funding Area: National