the arts loan fund

Are you an Emerging Arts Leader?  A Funder?  An Emerging Leader Network wondering how you will sustain or grow your network?  Maybe you’re an Executive Director concerned about the leadership development of the next generation?

Then you’ll want to tune into ARTSblog April 5-9.

ARTSblog is hosting a week-long national dialogue titled New Strategies to Support Next Generation Leaders from April 5-9. A broad selection of diverse leaders from across the country will blog about this theme—arising from a partnership between the Irvine and Hewlett Foundations to support Emerging Arts Leaders in California.

As arts administrators, we have all read reports and been involved in conversations about an impending generational shift.  Questions often arise about the readiness of emerging arts leaders to take over for current executive leaders, as we discuss “leadership gaps” and the lack of affordable professional development available.

To respond to this conversation, Americans for the Arts and the Emerging Leaders Council will host a national dialogue on New Strategies to Support Next Generation Leadership on ARTSblog.  The idea for this blog salon was developed out of a recent partnership between the Irvine and Hewlett Foundations to support Emerging Arts Leaders in California (See more about the Irvine/Hewlett partnership here).

This dialogue will leverage the voices of funders, Emerging Leader Network representatives, and leadership development advocates to discuss what is needed to sustain leadership growth, the skill sets that emerging leaders need to develop, and how funders are addressing the generational shift.

Make sure to visit the blog daily for updated postings, and comment often!

With the fifth anniversary of Katrina and the Haiti Earthquake weighing heavily in the news, NCG staff did a quick round-up of what resources exists of artists recovering from emergencies:

• Craft Emergency Relief Fund
  Offers direct financial and educational assistance to craft artists, including emergency relief assistance, business development support, and resources.
• Disaster Recovery Assistance for Performing Arts Organizations
  A disaster relief issue brief from the Performing Arts Alliance, a coalition of performing arts advocates.
• Gulf Coast Arts Recovery
  Helpful links and resouces compiled by the Mississippi Arts Commission after Katrina.
• Americans for the Arts Emergency Relief Fund
  Established in 2005 to provide timely financial assistance to victims of a major disaster for the purpose of helping them rebuild the arts in their community.
• Santa Fe Art Institute Emergency Relief Residencies
  provides respite to artists affected by the horrors of political, social, or natural disasters.
• Wet Collection Recovery
  the process of the salvage of storm damaged papers, books, art, etc. provided by the National Parks Service.
• Heritage Preservation
  maintains a web resources related to preservation of cultural heritage in the wake of disaster, as well as resources for disaster planning and response
• Burners Without Borders
  An international, grassroots collective of artists who respond to disasters with relief and rebuilding efforts

Have more? Please post!

The Creative Work Fund now invites letters of inquiry for projects featuring performing artists or visual artists. Collaborating artists must reside and organizations must be based in the following counties: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, or Stanislaus. This is the first time that San Benito and Santa Clara artists and organizations are eligible to apply. The deadline for letters of inquiry is 5:00 p.m. on November 6, 2009.

Their Web site offers information for applicants and grantees and a full list of application workshops. The East Bay Community Foundation just alerted Alameda and Contra Costa of these two:

• Friday, September 4, 2-3:30 p.m.
  James Irvine Foundation Conference Center
  De Domenico Building
  353 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza (near the 12^th Street BART Station)
  Oakland
• Sunday, September 13, 2:00-3:30 p.m.
  Moving Arts Dance
  1281-C Franquette Avenue (near the Sun Valley Shopping Center)
  Concord

Check the full schedule  and sign up at http://creativeworkfund.org/modern/seminars.html

The San Francisco-based James Irvine Foundation has announced the launch of a fund to help nonprofits develop and execute plans to better position themselves for the future in light of the ongoing recession.

The Fund for Financial Restructuring will support current Irvine Foundation grantees in its arts, California democracy, and youth programs that have already initiated internal planning processes to determine how best to adapt to the economic downturn. Grants ranging from $50,000 to $150,000 will be awarded to up to fifteen organizations, with priority given to nonprofits that are already exploring longer-term implications of the recession and that have demonstrated proactive thinking and action.

Grants awarded through the fund may be used to reinforce an organization’s core values and mission by better aligning its revenues and expenditures, reconsidering its basic strategies and operations, and/or developing new business models and related organizational structures, processes, products, or partnerships. Grants are not intended to be used to address short-term cash flow needs related to the recession or to support core operating costs for conducting “business as usual.”

The first round of grants will likely be awarded in late 2009, with one or two additional rounds following in 2010.

The NCG Loan Funds will be represented at CompassPoint’s Nonprofit Day on Tuesday, August 31st. Visit our booth for the latest information on loans  for nonprofits, and find us at the plenaries and breakout sessions hearing new perspectives on nonprofits thriving during this complex economy.

Registration is required, sliding scale per usual, by Friday, August 20, 2010.  Please visit Compasspoint for more information or to register.