MAP Fund Case Study on Addressing Bias in Grant Review

The report was developed by Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, in collaboration with the MAP Fund

Monday, December 16, 2019

Written to inform public and private funders who are addressing equity in their grantmaking, the case study can provide guidance to re-envision who reviews proposals and how they are chosen, orient and guide reviewers and panelists to be aware of bias, and consider alternative designs for application review that are more equitable. 


Randy Cohen

The Arts Unify Communities

Posted by Randy Cohen, Dec 06, 2019


Randy Cohen

157 years ago next week, the Battle of Fredericksburg took place—one of the bloodiest of the Civil War to that point. Following the battle, the giant Union and Confederate armies were camped mere shouting distance from each other, separated only by the Rappahannock River in Virginia. On a cold and wet evening, with both armies hunkered down and tending to their wounds, a band in the Union camp struck up a patriotic tune in hopes of lifting their side’s spirits. The Union soldiers cheered in appreciation. Not to be outdone, the Confederate band across the river then played their own patriotic tune—and the “Battle of the Bands” was on. 

In a society struggling to find equity and social justice, the arts improve the quality of our communities. They unify us and help us understand other cultures—benefits that persist even in difficult social and economic times. Like the thousands of soldiers celebrating that cold December evening, the research shows today’s public understands this as well. 

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Alicia Ehni

Supporting immigrant artists and building a network of support

Posted by Alicia Ehni, Nov 20, 2019


Alicia Ehni

New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA), founded in 1971, empowers artists at critical stages of their creative lives. One of the ways NYFA serves our mission is through our Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program (IAP) that has served more than 460 mentees since 2007. A large part of the success of this program is the fostering of communities and networks that enables participants and consultants to connect and collaborate to create more opportunities for artists to showcase their work and push their practice to new levels. A clear example of this is a recent NYFA/New York Live Arts (NYLA) collaboration initiated by Yanira Castro, a Puerto Rican, Bessie Award-winning artist based in Brooklyn, and Martita Abril, a performer, choreographer, teaching artist, and mentor of the IAP Program. With the goal of reflecting on the multiplicity of their experiences, identities, practices, and politics, these artists also speak to what holds them in common: the experience of displacement and disorientation, and the work of communicating/finding/forming community. 

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When STEM Becomes STEAM, We Can Change The Game

Thursday, November 7, 2019

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Implicit bias and other structural impediments mean that we open fewer doors to girls, students of color and kids from low-income and rural communities. When they don’t engage deeply in STEM, we all lose. But the arts have always been a haven for the otherwise marginalized, and arts education connected to STEM can open many possible doors. 


Mr. John R. Killacky

Arts Advocacy through a politician’s lens

Posted by Mr. John R. Killacky, Oct 29, 2019


Mr. John R. Killacky

Since being elected to the Vermont House of Representatives last fall, my perspective has dramatically changed as to how best advocate for the arts and, in fact, how siloed arts organizations and their funders are. My legislative work focuses on economic development, tourism, heath, education, affordable housing, environment, and agriculture, as well as vulnerable populations: veterans, prisoners, the homeless, those suffering from substance use disorders, and survivors of physical and sexual abuse. Art is barely present in these conversations, but is so needed.

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Museums Are Finally Taking Accessibility for Visitors with Disabilities Seriously

Friday, October 25, 2019

Blind Walls by Dénesh Ghyczy
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Art museums are open to visitors, but are they welcome and accessible to all? To answer this, museums are becoming more aware of solutions to make artwork available to patrons with disabilities.

New Study Could Explain Why There Are Fewer Women in Theater Design Roles

Friday, October 11, 2019

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Drawing on 589 responses from female-identifying designers and production personnel, the study found two key obstacles faced by these groups: gender discrimination and lack of support for working parents.


Randy Cohen

UPDATED! Top 10 Reasons to Support the Arts for National Arts & Humanities Month

Posted by Randy Cohen, Oct 02, 2019


Randy Cohen

October is National Arts & Humanities Month, a time to celebrate and champion the arts locally and nationally. The arts are fundamental to our humanity. They ennoble and inspire us—fostering creativity, goodness, and beauty. The arts bring us joy, help us express our values, and build bridges between cultures. The arts are also a fundamental component of a healthy community—strengthening them socially, educationally, and economically—benefits that persist even in difficult social and economic times. The effective arts advocate needs a full quiver of case-making arrows to articulate the value of the arts in as many ways as possible—from the passionately inherent to the functionally pragmatic. To help fill your quiver, I offer an updated Top 10 Reasons to Support the Arts.

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A $15 Million Performing Arts Center Dedicated to Immigrants Is Coming to New York City

Thursday, September 26, 2019

The Statue of Liberty stands in New York Harbor in the snow.
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Located in the Inwood neighborhood, the Immigrants Research and Performing Arts Center will “deliver state-of-the-art cultural space in Northern Manhattan, providing a permanent home to honor the vibrancy and history of immigrant contributions to our cultural fabric.”


Wendy Duke

Inclusion and Accessibility for Performers With Disabilities

Posted by Wendy Duke, Sep 16, 2019


Wendy Duke

Many performing arts groups and venues are working towards inclusion of their whole communities—both on-stage and in the audience. Today we’re beginning to see special performances and additional accommodations for audience members with disabilities. This movement towards inclusion can include toned-down lighting, sound, and special effects to accommodate people with autism. It may involve sign language interpreters and captioning devices to assist deaf audience members, or large type or Braille programs and audio descriptions on headphones for a deeper understanding of what is happening on stage for those with vision challenges. But inclusion doesn’t stop at the audience. It includes the stage, as well.

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Sphinx to put $1.5 million in grants behind increasing diversity in classical music field

Monday, August 26, 2019

Photo of Sphinx Virtuosi members in a group
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For the past 23 years, Sphinx has helped increase the number of Black and Latinx classical musicians in U.S. orchestras from 1.5 percent in 1996, to 5 percent in 2019. The Detroit based organization supports musicians of all levels through education and access, artist development, performing artist programs, and arts leadership. 


Ms. Barbara Schaffer Bacon


Ms. E. San San Wong

Artists, Funders, and Disruption in the Public Realm

Posted by Ms. Barbara Schaffer Bacon, Ms. E. San San Wong, Aug 22, 2019


Ms. Barbara Schaffer Bacon


Ms. E. San San Wong

When artists activate the social imagination and cultural practices bring people together, when new images and events claim or create public space, and when cultural organizing mobilizes people to action, art disrupts and influences social and political dynamics and discourse in the public realm. And, when funders shape programs to support this work, they too are influencers and activists in the public realm. As definitions of public art broaden to include social and civic practice, art in the public realm continues to recur as a central idea and practice. The concept of the “public realm” recognizes public space as more than physical places for locating art. They are connectors that support or facilitate public life and social interaction. In April, Americans for the Arts and The Barr Foundation released Programs Supporting Art in the Public Realm: A National Field Scan with snapshots of 28 programs supporting and building capacity for artists working in the public realm. The scan highlights how funders and cultural agencies are shaping programs to support artists for more place-specific and issue-specific work as well as cross-sector collaborations.

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Abigail Alpern Fisch

Creative Summer: Intern Experiences at Americans for the Arts

Posted by Abigail Alpern Fisch, Aug 19, 2019


Abigail Alpern Fisch

“What is justice?” In my first year of college, I had a research assignment to choose a case study related to this question. I wrote about the need to increase equitable access to arts education in the United States as a means for social justice, and used resources from Americans for the Arts for my research. With previous experience as a visual arts student as well as an art teacher for students from underserved schools in the Washington, D.C. area, I knew the transformative power that the arts could have to empower individuals and communities. My classmates were eager during my presentation to hear more about the case for the arts as a matter of social justice, as many of them reflected that they had never thought about arts in the context of social impact or equity. Since then, I have wanted to be an advocate for the arts wherever I go, knowing that it is so intertwined with issues of equity and social justice. I have pursued ways to integrate my interests in the arts with my professional goals of advocacy and related communications fields. This summer, I had the perfect opportunity to integrate my interest in the arts with my professional goals as the Marketing and Communications intern at Americans for the Arts.

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Mr. Robert Lynch

My Woodstock

Posted by Mr. Robert Lynch, Aug 14, 2019


Mr. Robert Lynch

Fifty years ago this week I was at Woodstock, among the “half a million strong” that Joni Mitchell sang about. I arrived in a much-mended 1963 Rambler with my girlfriend Karyl. I was 19 and it was the summer of my sophomore year in college. My brother Roger arrived separately with a bunch of his high school friends on the back of a pick-up truck held together with duct tape and band-aids. Neither of us knew the other was there. Our parents, like many other parents, didn’t learn about our trip until later, and they weren’t all that happy about it. The first news reports portrayed a chaotic, dangerous, and lawless image of the three days. The county had declared a state of emergency and reports were that the National Guard was about to be called in at any moment. Eventually, each of us would take life-changing, year-long adventures on the road—my brother on a motorcycle, me and Karyl in a VW bus. We all were English majors and were, of course, inspired by Jack Kerouac’s On the Road; but for now we had arrived at Woodstock. Even after all these many years, being at Woodstock was inspirational and significant. 

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Diversity in NYC Arts Organizations Falls Short of City Demographics

Monday, August 12, 2019

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A survey conducted in New York City revealed that the city’s arts and cultural nonprofits are still failing to reflect its surrounding community’s diversity. The report finds that while people of color make up two thirds of New York’s population, two thirds of its arts administrators are white. The study examined institutions large and small throughout the city’s five boroughs.

Foundations donate historic Jet/Ebony archive to African American Museum

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

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Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and other cultural institutions hope to preserve and recognize these publications and rich stories by making content accessible to the public and future generations. 

High School Students Do Better In Science, Math And English If They Also Take Music Lessons

Friday, June 28, 2019

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An extensive new study from the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada shows that students who took music lessons in high school performed better in subjects such as English, science, and math.

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