The study, supported by the Surdna Foundation, shows that philanthropic resources still disproportionately flow to the largest cultural institutions, and that those institutions do not represent the cultural or demographic diversity of our country. Leadership of philanthropic and large cultural institutions is overwhelmingly white. Meanwhile, cultural organizations whose primary artistic mission is to serve communities of color or low-income communities face distinctive challenges as a result of their context and lack of capitalization.
Arts Funding
Current public opinion toward federal funding for arts & culture in the United States
A significant majority of U.S. adults “strongly disagree” with President Trump’s proposal to eliminate federal funding for the NEA, NEH, IMLS, and CPB.
Recalculating the Formula for Success: Public Arts Funders and United Arts Funds Reshape Strategies for the Twenty-First Century
Local arts agencies, state arts agencies, arts funders supported through voter tax initiatives, and united arts funds are grappling with how to cultivate a twenty-first-century cultural community that reflects changing demographics, encourages innovation, embodies equity, and ensures a robust donor base and public commitment to the arts. Through interviews with sixteen leaders of public arts funders and united arts funds, Recalculating the Formula for Success: Public Arts Funders and United Arts Funds Reshape Strategies for the Twenty-First Century documents the new ways that these funders are approaching their work, rethinking longtime practices, and adapting to changing environments.
State Arts Agency Legislative Appropriations Preview
This report provides a forecast of state government funding for the arts in the year ahead, as budgets for fiscal year 2018 are being enacted and national funding trends are beginning to emerge.
Nonprofit Media Coverage of the Arts in California: Challenges and Opportunities
The California Arts Council recently completed an evaluation of our support of nonprofit media organizations in California, specifically as it relates to arts and culture coverage and related projects.
The central activities in this evaluation project include a June 2016 in-person convening of high-level California public media leaders, and the development of a subsequent report assessing the challenges and opportunities of supporting arts and public media in our state.
This report is the first of its kind for California, and we hope this will be the start of a conversation about the many opportunities for supporting public media’s engagement with arts and culture — and that it will bring awareness to the important work that is taking place in the field right now.
As readers will see in the report, these findings have benefited our Council’s programming decisions, with a revamped arts and public media grant program coming in 2017.
Exploring the Ways Arts and Culture Intersects with Housing
As the field of creative placemaking evolves, its proponents and practitioners are continuing to learn about the value of arts-based strategies for enacting change in communities, and how these strategies can be most effective in addressing persistent challenges.
