Post by jujurocs on Apr 15, 2010 18:19:04 GMT -8
From Artforum Magazine:
As part of an effort to increase the impact of its giving, the Ford Foundation will dedicate $100 million to the development of arts spaces nationwide over the next decade, reports Stephanie Strom for the New York Times. The plan is by far the largest commitment the foundation has ever made to the construction, maintenance, and enhancement of arts facilities.
The plan, called the Supporting Diverse Art Spaces Initiative, is one of several large financing projects that have resulted from a strategic overhaul of the foundation’s operations since its president, Luis A. Ubiñas, took over in 2008. He has moved the foundation in the direction of bundling its hundreds of millions of dollars in grants—which have traditionally varied widely in their focus—into large programs oriented toward specific issues. Other recent commitments include $80 million to bolster public programs for the unemployed and underpaid, $100 million for secondary education in seven cities and $50 million to help cities buy foreclosed properties.
In addition to helping arts groups build new spaces and renovate and expand old ones, the latest initiative aims to encourage the construction of affordable housing for artists in or around some of these spaces and to spur economic development in their surrounding areas. Ubiñas said that during his travels around the country he had been astonished when he would visit an arts organization and find that “all around it have developed whole neighborhoods—of artists and their families, of businesses that cater to them, of diverse people who want to live in a thriving community.”
He offered the example of the Boston Center for the Arts, organized in 1970 to provide artists with affordable studios while injecting life into the run-down South End neighborhood. “Then the Boston Ballet was added,” Ubiñas, “and performance space for other kinds of arts organizations, and what was a struggling neighborhood characterized by housing projects is a bustling community.”
As part of an effort to increase the impact of its giving, the Ford Foundation will dedicate $100 million to the development of arts spaces nationwide over the next decade, reports Stephanie Strom for the New York Times. The plan is by far the largest commitment the foundation has ever made to the construction, maintenance, and enhancement of arts facilities.
The plan, called the Supporting Diverse Art Spaces Initiative, is one of several large financing projects that have resulted from a strategic overhaul of the foundation’s operations since its president, Luis A. Ubiñas, took over in 2008. He has moved the foundation in the direction of bundling its hundreds of millions of dollars in grants—which have traditionally varied widely in their focus—into large programs oriented toward specific issues. Other recent commitments include $80 million to bolster public programs for the unemployed and underpaid, $100 million for secondary education in seven cities and $50 million to help cities buy foreclosed properties.
In addition to helping arts groups build new spaces and renovate and expand old ones, the latest initiative aims to encourage the construction of affordable housing for artists in or around some of these spaces and to spur economic development in their surrounding areas. Ubiñas said that during his travels around the country he had been astonished when he would visit an arts organization and find that “all around it have developed whole neighborhoods—of artists and their families, of businesses that cater to them, of diverse people who want to live in a thriving community.”
He offered the example of the Boston Center for the Arts, organized in 1970 to provide artists with affordable studios while injecting life into the run-down South End neighborhood. “Then the Boston Ballet was added,” Ubiñas, “and performance space for other kinds of arts organizations, and what was a struggling neighborhood characterized by housing projects is a bustling community.”