Northern California Grantmakers

In a recent GIA Reader article, member Marc Vogl of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation reflects on the 2009 Grantmakers in the Arts conference session he facilitated.

“My goal for putting together a session…Changing the Game: New Models, New Leaders, New Ideas for the Arts, was to cast new light on old problems by enriching our collective conversation with new voices,” Marc explains.

Panelists included:

• Adam Huttler, the founder director of Fractured Atlas, the nation’s largest fiscal sponsor for individual artists and arts organizations.
• Heather Cohn, a founder of the Flux Theatre Ensemble, fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas.
• Ebony McKinney, who recently left a position as a grantmaker at the San Francisco Art Commission to start a network for emerging arts leaders in the Bay Area.
• Nicole Derse, currently director of training for Organizing for America, but previously a community organizer and campaign manager.

Marc continues, “What I really hoped for, of course, was that instead of presenting four mini-monologues, the panelists  would converse with one another and with whomever showed up. To my delight, this actually happened.”

Read Marc’s full article “Changing the Game: Next-Generation Strategies for the Arts”  online.

Published in the Spring 2010 issue of Grantmakes in the Arts reader, “Supporting Individual Artists: 10 Years, 10 Lessons” by NCG member Claire Peeps reflects on Durfee Foundation‘s ARC program (Artists’ Resource for Completion).

Founded in 2000 to serve Los Angeles based artists, the ARC program is about to wrap up its first decade. As it reaches its first major benchmark, the Durfee Foundation decided to take the opportunity to evaluate the program.

“[T]he ten-year mark seemed like a good moment to pause and reflect on the journey thus far. With the aid of an outside evaluator, we undertook a retrospective look at ARC, with e-surveys of both declined applicants and awardees, focus groups, and a written report, which is posted on Durfee’s website,” reports Claire in her article.

From the responses acquired in the evaluation and survey process, Claire has gleaned 10 lessons:

1. Artists would rather receive a grant by application than by nomination.
2. Artists don’t want to be categorized by discipline or career level.
3. Small grants are like stepping stones.
4. Ease of application and quick turnaround are highly valued.
5. Funding is needed at all levels of artistic development.
6. Artists support artists.
7. Grants encourage artistic risk-taking
8. Local giving builds community and keeps it current.
9. Artists make great panelists.
10. Optimism Matters.

Read “Supporting Individuals Artists: 10 Years, 10 Lessons” online.

Learn more about Durfee’s Artists’ Resource for Completion program.

The Foundation Center regional research report, Spotlight on Arts Grantmaking in California, “sheds light on grant priorities and the effect of the economic crisis on California arts funders and recipient organizations surveyed earlier in 2009.”

“Findings show the contrast between types of support that grantmakers award compared to what arts groups say they need most.”

Download the report.