Should philanthropists and foundations fund artists directly to create the art they want to make? Should they fund theatres and galleries to make art more available to more people? Should they fund only work that explicitly promotes social change? Or should they fund the arts ‘in their own right’ – whatever that means? These are the questions that run through all the articles and interviews in the March issue of Alliance. Guest editors are Hania Aswad of the Naseej Foundation and Fiona Ellis of Millfield House Foundation.
The special feature includes Katherine Watson on why we should support art when there are so many critical global challenges; Michelle Coffey on the difficulties of assessing the impact of arts funding; and Will Miller on the Wallace Foundation’s new $40 million initiative to support performing arts organizations across the US. Other articles look at how the Dalit Foundation, the African Women’s Development Fund, Puntos de Encuentro in Nicaragua, and development organization Hivos support art to further their mission, while John Nickson canvasses the views of leading philanthropists and arts leaders in the UK and a former Secretary of State for Culture.
The March issue of Alliance also includes a look at what happens next after the European Commission’s rejection of the European Foundation Statute; two articles on philanthropy and the post-2015 agenda – a topic we will be covering throughout the year; and interviews with Ridgway White, new president of the Mott Foundation, and Firoz Ladak of Edmond de Rothschild Foundations. Timothy Ogden asks if Detroit’s Grand Bargain represents a new kind of philanthropy, while Diana van Maasdijk wonders what the world would look like if we had more women philanthropists.
