Displaying items by tag: arts organizations

The National Endowment for the Arts is awarding $894,300 in grants to nine Maine organizations for projects that focus on artistic creativity.

The majority of the funding is going to the Maine Arts Commission. The commission is getting $723,300. The rest of the money is going to a range of organizations that support projects in film, folk music, stage production, young artist workshops and other endeavors.

The Andy Warhol Museum has dropped plans to build a 10,000-square-foot branch in New York City.

Eric Shiner, director of The Warhol, said in a statement Friday night that “The Andy Warhol Museum, which had been exploring its participation in the Essex Crossing development in lower Manhattan, has determined that it will not proceed with the project. Despite the efforts of both the museum and the developers, an internal study of business and other operational considerations led the museum to this decision.

“The Warhol will continue to participate in programs, exhibitions, and special projects in New York City through its longstanding collaborations with a variety of New York-based arts organizations.”

Last spring, some heavy lifting in the California Legislature produced a budget bill that gave state arts funding its first legislated boost in more than a decade, albeit a modest one.

California taxpayers’ investment in the California Arts Council, the state’s grantmaking agency for nonprofit arts organizations and public school arts education, rose from $1 million to $6 million.

But Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal for the coming 2015-16 year puts advocates of arts spending back at the bottom of the hill. His spending plan gives the arts council just $1.1 million from the tax-fed general fund.

Bloomberg Philanthropies, the nonprofit founded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, has announced that it will award at least three cities in the United States up to $1 million each over two years as part of its new Public Art Challenge. The funds will support temporary public art projects that engage communities, enhance creativity, and enrich the vibrancy of cities. Bloomberg Philanthropies is asking mayors or chief executives in cities with 30,000 or more residents to submit proposals for innovative temporary public art projects that demonstrate close collaboration between artists, or arts organizations, and city government. Submissions for visual and performing arts, including multimedia installations, will be considered.  

The Bloomberg Philanthropies grant will cover development, execution, and project related expenditures, but it will not fund all project costs. The organization hopes that the endeavor will help cities create strong, committed consortiums of arts supporters while fostering public-private partnerships between local government and other funders.

Dallas’ Southern Methodist University and Philadelphia’s Cultural Data Project have joined forces to launch the National Center for Arts Research. The Center, which is the first of its kind in the United States, will conduct, analyze, and assemble arts research as well as investigate issues concerning arts management and patronage. The Center will make all of its finding public to art leaders, funders, policymakers, researchers, and the general public.

Through extensive studies and follow-up analysis, the National Center for Arts Research plans to create a comprehensive depiction of the health of the country’s arts sector. The Center, which launched on February 13, 2013, plans to collaborate with I.B.M. to create an interactive dashboard that will allow arts organizations to compare themselves to their peers.

Jose Bowen, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University said, “Arts organizations must have a more research-driven understanding of their markets and industry trends in order to more deeply engage existing audiences and reach new ones.” Along with management and patronage, the National Center for Arts Research will specialize in the impact of the arts on communities across the U.S. as well as fiscal trends and stability of the arts in the U.S.