This working paper, published by the Irvine Foundation and AEA Consulting, identifies the major challenges facing the arts and cultural sector in California. Based on interviews with arts leaders and a review of the relevant literature, the paper describes five key themes that, if not addressed, may threaten the health and well-being of the sector going forward. The themes are: Access, Cultural Policy, Arts Education, Nonprofit Business Model, and Preparing the Next Generation of Artists and Arts Managers. This working paper is the first phase of a project to engage arts leaders and others in a discussion on how to ensure a more sustainable future for the arts in California.
Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structure for U.S. Artists
This unprecedented national study by the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan research and policy center in Washington, DC, documents and analyzes the environment of support for artists in the United States. The study addresses the following questions: What are the important features of our current structures of support for artists? What are its strengths and weaknesses? How might we improve it? More information about the project is available here.
Learning, Arts, and the Brain
In the Dana Consortium study, researchers grappled with a fundamental question: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts training make people smarter? For the first time, coordinated, multi-university scientific research brings us closer to answering that question. Learning, Arts, and the Brain, a study three years in the making, is the result of research by cognitive neuroscientists from seven leading universities across the United States. It advances our understanding of the effects of music, dance, and drama education on other types of learning. Children motivated in the arts develop attention skills and strategies for memory retrieval that also apply to other subject areas. Also see the article on the study from the Dana Foundation website.
Ready to Lead? Next Generation Leaders Speak Out
A skilled, committed, and diverse pool of next generation leaders would like to be nonprofit executive directors in the future, according to a new national survey of nearly 6,000 next generation leaders from the Meyer Foundation titled Ready to Lead? Next Generation Leaders Speak Out. However, the survey also finds that there are significant barriers: work-life balance, insufficient life-long earning potential, lack of mentorship and overwhelming fundraising responsibilities which may prevent many younger nonprofit staff from becoming executives. The survey is the largest national survey to date of emerging nonprofit leaders and was produced by the Meyer Foundation in partnership with CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, The Annie E. Casey Foundation and Idealist.org. According to the Urban Institute, there are currently more than 850,000 registered public charities in the United States. San Francisco and Milpitas were key areas studied in the survey.
See the press release on the study for more information.
The Art of Collaboration: Promising Practices for Integrating the Arts and School Reform (2008)
This second publication in the Arts Education Partnership’s research and policy brief series describes promising practices for building community partnerships that integrate the arts into urban education systems. The publication, which is the result of a roundtable conversation among the directors of eight of the demonstration sites participating in The Ford Foundation’s Integrating the Arts and Education Reform Initiative, details the sites’ early strategies and successes in the areas of organizational infrastructure; partnership development; integrated arts education; and communications and advocacy.
The Arts: a Competitive Advantage for California II
Since 1994, the impact of nonprofit arts and culture on California’s economy increased by 152 percent to $5.4 billion. The 2004 study demonstrates that arts and culture generate billions annually, support a workforce of more than 160,000 and produce nearly $300 million in state and local taxes. It also shows that education, cultural tourism, and California’s creative industries are all nurtured by the nonprofit arts sector, and substantiates the significant role of the nonprofit arts to California’s economic well-being and status as the world’s fifth largest economy.
This publication is available online.
