Grantmakers in the Arts

Conference: Grantmakers in the Arts produces an annual national conference open to all staff and boards of trustees of arts funders. The conference offers 20 - 50 educational sessions on best practices, funding trends, current successful programs, and unique philanthropic challenges. Keynote speakers and artists provide inspirational and educational presentations. Held in a different city each year, sessions also extend to local arts venues for greater impact. The 2022 conference, in New York City, was our first held in-person since the beginning of the pandemic.

Racial Equity in Arts Funding: GIA, in conjunction with True North EDI, leads virtual racial equity in arts funding workshops with a national reach. In conjunction with Hillombo LLC, GIA has developed a racial equity in arts funding community of practice for arts and culture funders actively working to advance racial equity. A webinar available on the GIA website featires GIA and Race Forward discussing the creation and perpetuation of the racial hierarchy, and provides guidance on institutional strategies for diversity, inclusion, and equity. GIA staff attended racial equity facilitation training to enhance workshop offerings.

Other Programs: This program category includes research on support for individual artists; webinars and podcasts; research on philanthropic trends and issues; the National Capitalization Project; and publication of our online Reader. GIA provides educational content for arts funders through a daily changing newsfeed on its website, on-line webinars open to members and later available to the general public; public podcasts, an online publication (the GIA Reader) featuring trends and relevant issues, online workshops on sound capitalization principles for non-profit arts groups and forums bringing funders together to discuss areas of concern for the field of arts philanthropy. GIA also engaged in research in the areas of racial equity coding in arts funding and mission-based investing for arts & culture funders, and worked with a futurist consultant to explore how arts funding might be more equitable in a post-pandemic environment.