“We are thrilled and delighted to be launching two new Artists At Work (AAW) programs in the Mississippi Delta and Greater Chattanooga Thrive Region,” AAW shared in an announcement earlier this month. “We are honored to be championing these artists and their communities as they work together on projects that highlight the positive impacts of artistic civic engagement.”

Artists At Work is a workforce resilience program in the spirit of the WPA and is designed to support the rebuilding of healthy communities through artistic civic engagement. The implementation of Artists At Work in the Mississippi Delta and Thrive regions is made possible by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Read more here.

For Richmond-based artist Austin “Auz” Miles, the impact of her work is right there in the communities where she paints,” reports Nia Norris in NextCity. Elaborating, “Miles is part of a collective called All City Art Club whose mission is to bring murals to the Southside.”

Duron Chavis, a Richmond food activist, said, “It’s super important to highlight the contributions of Black women who do human rights work. I would just say being able to see personas that reflect their cultural reality helps with a deeper analysis around the issues communities face and hopefully provides the inspiration for more people to get involved in this type of work.”

Read the full article here.

In an Upack the Past feature in Al Jazeera, Donna J. Nicol writes, “From New Deal liberalism in the 1930s to the academic culture wars of the 1980s and the rise of Donald Trump, how White fears of losing power led to philanthropy that openly discouraged discussions of race and diversity.”

Nicol presents how, “philanthropic support led to a new form of political activity known as movement conservatism.” Using the working definition, “Movement conservatives promote the commercial interests of the corporate elite rather than the general interests of the American public by funneling millions of dollars into the creation of foundations and think-tanks that would develop policy analyses and research for politicians.” Summarizing, “This conservative counter-establishment had been working for decades, unbeknown to most of the American public, shaping and redefining the discourse around race in the US. By the time Trump announced his candidacy for the presidency, racial polarization, and the conservative backlash strategy was already firmly entrenched.

Read the full article here.

“Hauser & Wirth Institute gives $700,000 in grants to preserving historical records,” reports Benjamin Sutton in the Art Newspaper. “One of the things we’re trying to do is set a new precedent for models of philanthropy in art,” says Lisa Darms, the executive director of Hauser & Wirth Institute.

Sutton elaborates, “Though underwriting archival efforts rarely commands as much attention as other art world philanthropy, such as funding eight- and nine-figure expansion projects, it can have a far more expansive effect in terms of preserving the art historical record and expanding the canon.”

Read the full article here.

The BNP Paribas Foundation, the philanthropic arm of BNP Paribas, Europe’s leading financial institution, announced the donation of $30 000 CAD/year to the DAREarts “All the Arts” program. “This support is part of the BNP Paribas Foundation’s international program, Dream Up, which offers to disadvantaged children and teenagers around the world the opportunity to practice a wide range of artistic disciplines,” announced Business Wire.

Read the full announcement here.

“Philanthropists apparently wanted to help arts and culture organizations that were hurt by canceled performances, classes and fund raising events, which caused a loss of revenue,” Fidelity Charitable said. Summarizing support as, “Donors gave $351 million more in 2021 than in 2020 to arts and cultural organizations.”

“Fidelity Charitable donors contributed $331 million in digital assets in 2021, compared to $28 million contributed in 2020,” noted Financial Advisor. “The phenomenal giving we saw from Fidelity Charitable donors in 2020 continued to grow in 2021, showing us that this increase in generosity is a sustainable trend,” Fidelity Charitable President Jacob Pruitt said in a statement.

Read more here.

“The very essence of philanthropy is to not accept the world as it is, but to demand and work toward the world as it should be. Too often, though, philanthropy fails to achieve this goal and ends up as a mirror of what is happening in society rather than as a prism previewing a better future,” state Anne Price and Jhumpa Bhattacharya in Non Profit Quarterly.

They summarize, “The lack of accessibility in the philanthropy space echoed by multiple leaders of color shows that this is not an individual experience, but rather a collective one.” Multiple straightforward solutions are proposed along with Foundations and Trusts who have successful implementation.

Read more here.

“Although major cultural institutions, businesses and organizations have made renewed commitments to supporting arts organizations led by BIPOC leaders since 2020, Black-owned art galleries and collections have long played a central role in diversifying the art market and acquiring artwork of artists from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds,” purports Sabrina Greig in NewCity Art.

“We (Greig/NewCity Art) sat down with established Black art professionals, curators and gallerists from five galleries across Chicago that have been working to bring equity to the greater art world.”

Read more here.

“American philanthropies, museums and universities have accepted millions of dollars from tycoons aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including several who are the targets of Western sanctions, according to an analysis by anti-corruption researchers,” reported Peter Whoriskey in The Washington Post.

Whoriskey continues, “Among the many beneficiaries are such storied institutions as New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Mayo Clinic and the Guggenheim Museum, the research shows — a reflection of how deeply money from Russian oligarchs has penetrated American society.” As seen in past activism against cultural institutions’ acceptance of controversial donations, “The findings are likely to amplify demands that U.S. cultural organizations disavow donors believed to have profited from the Putin regime. It was produced by the Anti-Corruption Data Collective, a group of academics, data analysts, and policy advocates working to expose transnational corruption.”

Read more here.

“We offer our story as one example (amongst many) of what it can look like to answer the call to fund racial justice. Five years ago, we at the Pink House Foundation (PHF)—a small family foundation based in Washington, D.C.—set out to explore what it could look like to redefine philanthropy with justice at the center,” report Hanna Mahon and Luke Newton Newton in Inside Philanthropy.

“After five years of building out our social justice giving model, we [PHF] decided that, in addition to redistributing our family wealth to support justice, we can have the greatest impact if we also redistribute the decision-making power over where that funding goes.”

Read the full interview here.