Signs of Hope and Responsibility!

Philanthropy News Digest

Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation Awards $1.4 Million to NYC Arts Groups

The New York City-based Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation has announced grants totaling $1.4 million to help fourteen New York City arts organizations continue their programming during the recession.

All the selected organizations are past grantees of the foundation's arts and enterprise program and have pioneered important cultural initiatives and established strong roots within their communities, despite lack of access to well-heeled donors. The grants will be used for a variety of purposes, from sustaining educational programming at the Weeksville Heritage Center in Bedford Stuyvesant to making possible an ambitious schedule of sixty performances at Harlem Stage.

"Over the past several years, we have had the privilege of supporting a unique constellation of cultural institutions that not only reflect New York City's continued relevance as the world's cultural capital, but have also delivered the benefits of our emerging creative economy to some of our most vulnerable neighborhoods and citizens," said Gary Hattem, president of the Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation. "These grants will help preserve these institutions as important community assets while allowing for their continued leadership in furthering community revitalization."

For a complete list of grant recipients, visit the Deutsche Bank Web site.

“Deutsche Bank Supports New York City Cultural Organizations With Arts and Enterprise Stabilization Grants.” Deutsche Bank Press Release 8/06/09.

Souccar, Miriam. “Deutsche Bank Throws Lifeline to the Arts.” Crain's New York Business 8/06/09.

Primary Subject: Arts and Culture
Secondary Subject(s): Economic Crisis
Location(s): New York

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Lee Garrison

A painter, whose work(s) I found roaming through cyber-space yesterday! I invite interested people, to click here, in order to look at the beautiful film of her working life_ that of a fellow painter!
I find her work loose and free, qualities very attractive to me on many levels. The more of her work I saw on the film, posted on her website (click on the link on her name), the more I really loved the spirit of the work.
Today, (August 11, 2009) I had my second chat by phone with this lovely human being, a sprite really, as I picked up on the lilting joy in her giggle because she was speaking about her path as the artist! It was a contagious conversation. I am a lucky person for having made contact directly, seeking permission to publish the image you see above, so I could share it here on my left coast, artist blog!
Tell me what you think!

Prayer II

Interested?

This 36" x 48", simply framed, oil painting is for sale.

I consider it the pièce de résistance of my entire working oeuvre as an artist.

To contact me about it, please find my email address located on the top of the right sidebar.

Thank-you.

The Blog Swapping Project Gets Underway!

So far on NetworkedBlogs, we have attracted just about half the projected number of participants desired_ yet, sometimes good things just can't wait!

We begin swapping/writing on one another's blogs, on the 23rd of August, (2 weeks from this Sunday, 8/9/09!). Click here on "this event" to register for this great and exciting, creative social collaboration_ experiment!

Swapping blogs for a day!

This is an invitation to all interested parties in the world of blogging!
Sarah, a blogger from Pakistan has hit upon a growing trend in the broader world of blogging: that of exchanging your blog with another blogger and vice verse for a day!

I thought that it sounded creative, collaborative and exciting_ so, I am helping to promote this concept. We can kick off the project with a minimum of 28 people. Each person is then paired with one other individual, to let the blog swapping begin for a twenty-four hour period!

I am discovering that people who have already done this, are discovering just how small the world of like, shared or just plain in common traits between them really are!!

To participate with this blog swapping adventure you can contact me here or, contact Sarah (the originator of this leg of the blog swapping trend) directly at this link! (I added the discussion page. Look for thisicon at the top of the page to find Sarah, the blog swapping idea originator for this group!)

Meanwhile, this quote from T.S. Elliot's poem: "In Four Quarters" is a fitting reference to this project as well_ I found it here, on the blog of another "swapper!"

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
- T.S. Elliot, Four Quarters

James Turrell

The work of James Turrell has intrigued me since I read about it in an old edition of ARTnews. I was recently glad to see he was one of the featured artists in the PBS Series, Art:21, Art in the 21st Century, part 1.

Fractured Atlas

Business
Fractured Atlas Puts 'Biz' In Show Business

by Neda Ulaby

Listen Now [18 sec] add to playlist | download

Morning Edition, March 11, 2009 · Fractured Atlas founder and Executive Director Adam Huttler never intended to create an arts service organization. As a freshly minted Sarah Lawrence graduate, Huttler moved to New York City to start his own theater company and put on plays.

"That lasted for about one show," Huttler admits. "I realized I was OK as a director but really better at the business side of things."

So Huttler transformed his company into a not-for-profit that teaches arts organizations to function better as businesses. Eight years later, Fractured Atlas boasts a $4.5 million budget and supports 7,500 arts organizations and individual artists nationwide. It helps with low-cost health insurance, fiscal sponsorship, professional development, technical assistance and liability insurance.

"We try to help [artists] be in a position to focus more exclusively on making art," Huttler explains.

Fractured Atlas' services helped the Catalyst Theater Company in Washington, D.C., obtain unemployment insurance for its part-time actors and staff. Artistic Director Scott Fortier says he plans to take advantage of Fractured Atlas' free online classes in fundraising and accounting, especially during a moment of declining donations across the arts world.

"Once you start actually acting like a business, I think that your donors are happy, your board is definitely happy. It gives us a grown-up feel," he observes.

Most Fractured Atlas members are individual artists. They can get basic memberships free or pay $75 a year for more programs and services. For example, Fractured Atlas can help documentary filmmakers get errors and omissions coverage that protects them if they are sued by their subjects — and is crucial for scoring distribution deals.

Another Fractured Atlas member, Christian Oh, helps run the DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival, which annually brings over 80 independent movies to Washington. Oh says Fractured Atlas helped his organization expand to the extent that he may not renew his membership: He says the film festival has learned how to take care of itself.

"It's almost like a parent and child," he says. "You know, we've been a child of theirs for a while and we realize that we're growing up and we need to move on."

Huttler says that means he is doing his job. The recession has not hurt Fractured Atlas' membership. In fact, Huttler says that since October, it has gained about 300 new members a month.

"Artists will keep making art, no matter what," Huttler says.

And, he adds, they might as well have health insurance while they do it.



I am in the "child" stage as my 501c3 sponsored project is something I am still learning at my own pace, how to promote, how to solicit funds and resources for, and all that comes with staring fear in the face, in order to get on with creating my first sponsored art project.

The affordable health insurance for artists part is not quite out west yet, but I am looking for it!

* To locate my fiscally sponsored project, scroll very near the bottom of the page in the link to "Timeless Rhythms." Thanks!