janet.giarts.org -
[Cached Version]
Last Visited: 7/6/2009
This was brought into focus for me lately by the stories of two courageous women in the philanthropy field: Janice Pober of Sony Entertainment and Vickie Benson of the McKnight Foundation.
...
Vickie Benson, president of Grantmakers in the Arts and arts program officer for the McKnight Foundation in Minneapolis has a similar story to tell.
She has been to the statehouse twice during the past couple months to testify in support of arts funding.
The first time, she was invited by a legislative committee member to give input on regulations being written regarding fund dispersement from the new tax that will benefit culture and the environment.
The second time she was asked to appear as a witness by Minnesota Citizens for the Arts when a bill was introduced to eliminate the Minnesota State Arts Board.
In her second testimony, Vickie made two things clear to the legislative committee: 1) if they had asked McKnight if it felt the Arts Board should be eliminated, the answer would have been "no" and 2) the private sector, as in previous downturns in governmental funding, cannot make up the difference when government resources are zeroed out.
In other words, she was protecting her investment of support from McKnight to the cultural growth of Minnesota.
You can read her testimony on the McKnight website.
Vickie heard from many private foundations who thanked her for her testimony and for helping to make the point that funding the nonprofit arts community is a "partnership" between the private and public sector.
Vickie did this with the consent and blessing of McKnight Foundation president, Kate Wolford.
...
Vickie Benson, president of GIA, was with me.
...
Everywhere we went, GIA president Vickie Benson set a tone of openness and collaboration.
"Better Together" was her message and I've adopted it as the name of my blog.
It is a spirit of cooperation that doesn't diminish the exclusiveness of our mission in philanthropy but opens the doors to partner with organizations whose programs help us to accomplish our work.
Confident in our own identity and mission, these partnerships will advance the field of arts philanthropy and the work of GIA.
Vickie Benson is, in my opinion, one example of the new face of foundation activism.
...
This week, GIA president Vickie Benson and I will meet with Washington DC grantmakers in the arts, Steve Gunderson, president of Council on Foundations, Tim Waltner, executive director of the Association for Small Foundations, Patrice Walker Powell, acting chair of the NEA, Bob Lynch of Americans for the Arts and Jonathan Katz of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.
43 online sources [ view sources ]
Profile is not claimed [ claim profile ]
