Authors Aja Couchois Duncan and Kad Smith explore how, “in our nonprofit sector, we are often confronted with making sense of the widespread translatability of cultural moments and forces. We don’t have to look far to see how cancel culture informs the way in which we experience everyday interactions on the Internet and in real life.” How can we separate ourselves from toxicity, and bring healing instead?

Examples of, “[drawing] on inner work and healing practices to both replenish ourselves and cultivate our individual and collective resilience,” include tapping into awareness, honoring the sacred, cultivating compassion, re-yoking our bodies, and nourishing our human forms. “Our mutuality flourishes when our love ethic is strong. And our love ethic is nourished by the practice of loving accountability. Loving accountability means we are learning together, and that we are risking vulnerability in service of creating authentic connection and a better future.”

Read the full article here.

“Please join Chair Maria Rosario Jackson and NEA partners for an overview of the NEA’s Equity Action Plan,” on Wednesday, June 1 from 2-3pm ET via zoom. The session is free, but registration is required. Questions for the panel will be accepted until May 27.

Read NEA’s Equity Action plan here.

Register for the webinar here.

“Events at the Whitney Museum of American Art this year have featured a consistent new guest: the museum’s union. Last night, at the museum’s annual gala and Studio Party, about 50 people turned out, standing on the curb with signs bearing such slogans as ‘LIVING ARTISTS LIVING WAGES,’ ‘HONK FOR A FAIR CONTRACT,’ and ‘WHITNEY WORKERS WANT FAIR WAGES’ and banging on drums as guests filed into the museum’s lobby for a luxe dinner,” said artnet news. “Compared to the demonstration that followed the opening of the Whitney Biennial, it was a clear increase in participation, plausibly stemming from a wage offer on April 19 that fell far below the union’s proposal.”

“According to a release that the union sent out, the Whitney’s director, Adam Weinberg, brings in a yearly salary of just above $1.1 million, and ‘the combined compensation for the fourteen highest-paid museum executives for the prior year totaled $4.5 million.’ Signs on the street revealed that many employees, in contrast, earn $17 per hour, and claimed that they are unfairly kept as temporary employees, barring them from certain benefits—including union membership.”

Read the full article here.

Congratulations to GIA’s Support for Individual Artists co-chair Celeste Smith, who was selected for the Bridging Fellows Program. “The Bridging Fellows program provides changemakers in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Dallas the opportunity to strengthen their individual and collective leadership capacity and grow networks to support building healthy and equitable communities.”

From the Independent Sector: “A Bridging Fellow actively engages individuals, communities, and/or organizations for the purpose of building bridges across varying differences, including ideological, racial, socioeconomic, and geographical. Bridging Fellows-formally and/or informally-build relationships, trust, and opportunities for open and honest communication towards sustainable change and impact – including but not limited to- activists, community residents, organization leaders, community liaisons, youth development coordinators, program officers, case managers, community organizers, educators, human resource professionals, etc.”

“Through participation in the fellowship, Fellows will receive capacity and skill-building activities and instructions around bridging frameworks, share their bridging expertise with the cohort and broader social sector, and commit to deploy these practices in their organizations and communities. As a cohort, they will share their learnings and deepen their connections with each other across sectors, institutions, and geographies.”

Read the full announcement, and meet the 2022 fellows here.

Join the virtual Funder Briefing Friday, May 20 at 9am PST/12pm EST hosted by Live Free USA, Joyce Foundation, Ford Foundation, Arnold Ventures, and VOICE Buffalo. Registration is required to join.

“This past Saturday, a senseless, horrific, and pre-meditated shooting by a white supremacist left 10 Black people dead and a community ravaged in Buffalo, NY.”

“Once again a city is left to grapple with the trauma of violence and racism while the nation searches for answers and its black citizens try to navigate the fear and frustration that grows from a legacy of white supremacy, bigotry, xenophobia, and intolerance that seems to have no end.”

“Our loved ones will need short-term and long-term support to begin the recovery. They have a plan informed by their local needs. It is beyond time for comprehensive solutions and action!”

Register for the event here.

Candid interviewed Amanda Moniz, Ph.D., the David M. Rubenstein Curator of Philanthropy at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, who is responsible for, “[building] a collection of objects telling stories about Americans’ giving throughout our history.” The museum’s new exhibition, Giving in America, “includes one of the first copies of [the] Foundation Directory.”

“Part of the exhibit is organized around the questions of who gives, why do we give, how do we give, and what do we give, while another thematic section changes annually,” said Moniz. “The current thematic section, “Who Pays for Education?,” examines Americans’ debates over public and philanthropic funding for education.”

“The book featured in the exhibition is a first edition of the Foundation Directory, published by the Foundation Center Library in 1960, and generously donated to the national Philanthropy collection by the Foundation Center. It is a terrific object because it helps illuminate the creation of the Foundation Center to bring greater transparency to foundations’ work in response to mid-twentieth century congressional scrutiny of foundations’ power. The book is also important because it reminds us of the ways people accessed information on foundations before the advent of the internet.”

Read the full article here.

From the Mellon Foundation: “Rachel Chanoff, founding director of Artists At Work, speaks to the Mellon Foundation about forging a new model for artist-driven community collaborations and why we need artists as problem solvers.”

Chanoff speaks to the uniqueness of this model, “We put the artists on our payroll at a living wage with benefits for up to a year. They’re paid for two things: to make beautiful art and to be embedded in a social impact initiative. Not only are artists the messengers who help us make meaning of the world, they have the most extraordinary ability to bring creative thinking to a problem and help solve that problem.”

Read the full article here.

The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture) serves as an example of this model with their current community-centric projects.

Current GIA board member, Carlton Turner, serves as lead artist/director. “Sipp Culture is able to provide rehearsal space, housing, planning support and can participate as a partner and consultant in the realization of bringing new southern rural stories to the field,” according to the MCCP website. “Through this program Sipp Culture offers artists support which is tailor-made to fit their developmental needs.”

From Hyperallergic: “In response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on the arts and culture sectors, the Seattle Office of Arts and Culture (ARTS) will distribute $2 million to create jobs for unemployed and underemployed artists and cultural workers.”

“’These programs will employ creative workers, demonstrate how they are embedded in the social-economic fabric, and reinforce the fact that Seattle is flourishing and meshing its creatives into its workforce, thereby into its social structures,’ royal alley-barnes, acting director of ARTS, told Hyperallergic in a statement.”

Read the full announcement here.

“Last week, we were reeling from the Supreme Court’s leaked decision to overturn Roe vs Wade. People will die, especially Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asians and NH/PI, and low-income people, because safe abortions will still remain accessible to higher-income mostly white people,” said author Vu. “This week, a white man drove 200 miles to Buffalo and murdered 10 people, most of whom were Black, citing the ‘Great replacement theory’ espoused by many right-wing white supremacists. It is horrifying, and my heart breaks for the families of those who were murdered by this racist terrorist.”

How can funders and philanthropists combat white supremacy within the operations of our sector?

The proposed solutions include:

1. Increase your payout rates
2. Fund organizing work, especially work led by marginalized communities
3. Get political
4. Support movement leaders
5. Knock it off with all the grant application bullshit

Read the full article here.