Tattered Cover and Philanthropy Colorado hosted a panel with five of Colorado’s foundation executives, including GIA Board of Directors alumni Gary Steuer, for a discussion about the state of philanthropy and the increased priority of equity and opportunity in their organizations’ grantmaking partnerships.
“More than a year after the police killing of George Floyd and the avalanche of donations toward racial-equity initiatives that followed, the actual gift amounts and their destinations remain largely unknown, complicating efforts to gauge the effectiveness of the donations and their recipients,” reads an article published by The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
This past week saw the fifth anniversary of World Fringe Day. Beginning in 2017 on July 11th, it’s a celebration of the worldwide phenomenon that is fringe theatre, as well as the countless moving parts that make up each individual Fringe Festival- artists, volunteers, techs, venues, and so much more constantly whirr in the creation of these iconic events. The world at large didn’t see a Fringe in 2020, so this year’s World Fringe Day is especially bright as audiences are once again able to attend live performances across a great deal of the globe.
For the uninitiated, fringe theatre at large is the theatrical content and productions that exist outside of mainstream, high-profile productions and theatre companies. Often daring, odd, rough around the edges, and driven to accessibility, fringe can be likened to a punk form of theatre. Fringe Festivals are annual events produced around the globe that see scores of independent artists staging their works for hungry audiences for a fraction of the usual production cost. It’s the place where most budding theatre artists test their mettle and veteran indie and international touring artists are able to make a vibrant living.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which is both the original Fringe Festival and still the mecca of all Fringes, put tickets on sale at the start of the month. While it will be decidedly reduced in number compared to previous years’ 3000+ shows, the fact that it is going up at all is a beacon of light after a dark 365 days. The importance of the Edinburgh Fringe can’t be understated, having been home to truly resonant works—including Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s beloved Fleabag. Her catapult into worldwide recognition and President of the Fringe Society also has her releasing a Fleabag-inspired gin to help raise funds for the festival and its artists.
Courtesy of Edinburgh Gin.
Elsewhere is seeing much the same, with late-game announcements of Fringes intending to go up within the next several months. From Edmonton to Hollywood, Prague to Milan, festivals are coming back into the lives of theatre lovers around the world. Some are maintaining isolation practices through recorded theatre, while others are seeing a genuine return to lives performances. Adelaide Fringe in particular was able to gross a whopping $56.39AUD, an impressive feat in the still-recovering context.
With Fringe Festivals serving as a decent barometer for the general theatre climate, it is relieving to see these returns to form, as diminished as they may be, as a sign of better times ahead for the performing arts. Many of the qualities we have come to cherish and miss over the past year—community, connection, intimacy, live artistry, shared experience—are encapsulated by the Fringe. So with World Fringe Day flying a proud flag of this unique theatrical forum’s return across the globe, what it truly signals is us once again being able to step into that unparalleled joy found between a stage, an artist, and an audience.
In dialogue with “Backlash: A Sharp Right Turn by a Philanthropy Member Organization,” an excellent piece from Phil Buchanan, president of Center for Effective Philanthropy, I offer this continuation of my more recent President’s Blog post.
In his piece, Buchanan calls out the current conservative critique of pro-BIPOC philanthropy as divisive and disingenuous. In part one of this piece, I wrote of how the current “backlash” against pro-BIPOC practices and policies is a culture war that is meant to obfuscate an economic war on low-income White and BIPOC folks by a small number of economic elites who have a loud platform and the resources to buy influence. Culture wars help to illuminate why GIA and our members support culture – because culture matters more than anything else. This culture war includes philanthropy as a tool and what we can all learn from it.
I don’t use the use of the term “backlash,” as it implies that each chapter in the conservative culture war against BIPOC, women, and LGBTQIA+ folks is a unique response to a discrete moment in time. Instead of backlash, I agree with those who argue that these are new developments in a planned long-term strategy – including a cultural strategy – that has been ongoing throughout our nation’s history. This long-term strategy is what Ian Haney López calls strategic racism – a calculated decision to seek advantage, such as money, status, or power, by activating and manipulating the racialized beliefs, assumptions, and fears that we have inherited.
An example of Haney López’s strategic racism in practice that I find quite compelling is offered in Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right by Jane Meyers. Meyers shares John M. Olin’s version of the origins of his spend-down foundation’s strategies. In his telling, Olin was activated to fund right-wing academic programs, scholars, and media figures by images of Black student protestors storming the student union of his alma matter, Cornell University, in the late 1960s. Meyers explains that, according to the actual timeline of events, Olin actually began shifting his giving to fuel right-wing policy change when he got into legal trouble over his company’s environmental violations.
The strategy of concealing the pursuit of economic self-interest under the pretense of defending American identity and values against Black student protestors has evolved into our current corporate-media opposition to critical race theory being taught in schools. This is only the most recent chapter in a decades-long, deliberate strategy to dehumanize Black and Indigenous folks and other people of color and create false and harmful narratives of fear mongering in order to turn voters against a government that may tax the economic elite more than they would like. And it has worked for decades.
Conservative use of philanthropy to influence public policy and media narratives has been the picture of effectiveness, as revealed by National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP)’s strong reporting, which includes Moving A Public Policy Agenda: The Strategic Philanthropy of Conservative Foundations and Axis of Ideology: Conservative Foundations and Public Policy. NCRP outlines how conservative foundations grant multi-year general operating support intended to influence local and national government toward conservative economic policy through changing the public dialogue and building power. The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s recent report, Policy Influence: What Foundations are Doing and Why, reinforces the finding that policy influence stems from long-term funding and commitment. More over, the report also uncovers that community foundations supporting this work have not alienated donors, but in fact have attracted more donors.
Our national grantmaking field has come through a period of increased general operating support and trust-based philanthropy in the funding community in general and in cultural funding specifically. We must not turn back.
Unfortunately, those of us who are centrist or even progressive remain far too skittish about building power and supporting advocacy. In one of my earliest President’s Blog posts, I explain that grant support for advocacy and lobbying is perfectly legal, and GIA continues to echo this message time and again. Building cultural power and cultural advocacy are interdependent; grantmakers have a unique opportunity to make this happen. The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s recent report on policy influence shares one leader’s explanation that being engaged in policy changes does not require that we be partisan. Nonetheless, the same report reveals that most foundations reported that influencing public policy was a very small part of their grantmaking, and that over half expressly forbid grantees from using their funds to influence public policy.
We must recognize and position ourselves as part of a large economic ecosystem. Conservative philanthropy has revealed the effectiveness of using trust-based funding toward cultural shift and policy change toward their political interests. GIA shares examples of how those of us who are pro-BIPOC, pro-worker, and pro-justice must and can build power and support advocacy toward policy change. Just some of GIA’s programs that discuss this include “Reimagining the Economy With Innovative Support,” a webinar from 2020, “Beyond the Grant: Supporting Communities Through Alternative Economies,” a webinar from 2019, our most recently released report, Solidarity Not Charity: Arts & Culture Grantmaking in the Solidarity Economy, and our latest episode in the GIA Podcast series, “A Just Transition for Investing in Arts & Culture.” GIA also shares how we must and can change the narratives about one another in a manner that is joyous rather than fearful.
We can make all these changes in the world. Within the GIA community, we have colleagues to look to and learn from who are making these changes. The future we want is ours to make. It only requires action.
International Deadline: August 11, 2021 – Viridian Artists presents its 31st Annual International Juried Group Exhibition, to be on view in our Chelsea New York gallery space as well as on Viridian’s website. Cash awards…
U.S. Multi-State Deadline: August 1, 2021 – Artists and curators of all experience levels have the opportunity to collaborate with Gallery 263 staff to organize and present polished, self-curated exhibitions…
In a recent editorial, Widewalls discusses how the art world has reacted to the ongoing civil unrest in the United States, following the death of George Floyd on May 25, 2020.
Image: F. Muhammad / Pixabay
U.S. National Deadline: September 1, 2021 – The Contemporary Dayton’s Holiday Gift Gallery is the premier fine art and fine craft professional gallery show and sale in the region. Up to 75 artists will be invited…
Christine Yoon, senior program officer, Arts, at the Wallace Foundation sat down with Imagine This Podcast to discuss “navigating culture shifts in the workplace, the philanthropic community’s shifts over the last year, leadership development in nonprofits, managing uncertainty, and more.”
Sotheby’s will offer 25 works by the late artist Christo that chart the planning of the artist’s final project: to cover the Arc de Triomphe in Paris in 25,000 sqm of polypropylene fabric and rope. Christo passed away in 2020 but his monumental project will still be realized, with an estimated completion date of September 18 and October 3. Christo’s project dates back to his earliest years in Paris and will be entirely funded by the upcoming auction.
The Sotheby’s exhibition will take place at the Paris outpost and will coincide with the unveiling of the project during the second week of September.
Christo, along with his wife and life-long collaborator, Jeanne-Claude, deliberately made works that could be sold in order to fund their experiential practice. This has granted them the freedom to not rely on any institutional funding or any outsider support. “Each one of our works is a scream of freedom,” Christ said in a 2001 book.
Proceeds from the original works at Sotheby’s will benefit the latest Paris project and also go towards the newly established Christo & Jeanne-Claude Foundation. Sotheby’s also worked with the estate earlier this year to sell the couple’s famous collection of nearly 400 works, which sold for a total of €9.2m.
The Arc de Triomphe wrap is the last such project that can ever be done. The work dates back to 1958 when the Bulgarian-born Christo immigrated to Paris as a political refugee and could see the famous arch from his small room. The works at Sotheby’s range from 2017 to 2020 and are “like a walk around his brain”, says Simon Shaw, vice-chairman of Sotheby’s. Prices range from $150,000 to $2.5m.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude have always made clear that their works in progress must be continued after their deaths. Per Christo’s wishes, L’Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped will be realized by his team.