Characteristics of Civically Engaged Nonprofit Arts Organizations

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirae Kim

Nonprofits face increasing pressure to compete in the market, while they must maintain their civic commitment. Focusing on the arts and cultural sector, this study conducts the first large-scale, comprehensive empirical measurement of nonprofits’ engagement in various roles. The article uses a previously validated 18-item role index to categorize nonprofits as primarily engaged in either civic or market functions, so that a subsequent regression analysis can identify the common characteristics of civically active nonprofit arts service organizations. The data come from (a) qualitative interviews with leaders of arts nonprofits, (b) a random national sample of more than 900 arts nonprofits, and (c) Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax returns of the sample nonprofits. The findings suggest that civically active arts nonprofits have diverse networks, recognize civic engagement as the industry norm, and are consciously aware of their nonprofit status. The results suggest how nonprofits can balance their equally important market- and civic-oriented functions.

2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirae Kim ◽  
Dyana P. Mason

In recent years, arts and culture nonprofits have sought to make themselves more relevant to community issues by engaging in advocacy. Based on survey data drawn from a national sample of arts nonprofits, this study compares the different levels of advocacy carried out by all arts nonprofits and by minority-led arts nonprofits. To explain the varying levels of advocacy, this study focuses on the diversity of an organization’s constituents and its surrounding community, as well as the ethnic or racial identity and the professional background of its leader. Our results indicate that constituent and community racial and ethnic compositions are associated with the level of advocacy at arts nonprofits. Also, arts nonprofits with leaders who have been in the arts industry for a significant time are more likely to be engaged in advocacy than otherwise similar organizations. We discuss the implication of diversity and professional leadership on arts nonprofits’ advocacy.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Susan Richer

<p><b>During the COVID-19 worldwide health pandemic, with gigs cancelled, seasons postponed, travel ceased and unemployment increasing, calls for new approaches to cultural policy have emerged despite there being no shared understanding of what cultural policy is, does and could be. Governments in Australia and New Zealand have responded to the sector’s increased precarity with large-scale rescue funding packages, which are focussed on immediate relief and short-term survival. Even pre-COVID, it seems there was little interest in longer term cultural policy thinking.</b></p> <p>This research explores the legitimacy of cultural policy as source of sector sustainability through a review of contemporary cultural policy literature and insights from key players in the cultural policy space - arts and cultural bureaucrats, whose perspectives are usually muted. Norwegian sociologist Per Mangset (2020) suggests that western democracies may actually be facing the end of cultural policy, which has not adapted or responded significantly to major societal, economic and cultural changes of the last 50 years. While not conceding that cultural policy is a redundant practice, this research responds to Mangset’s provocation by identifying three key policy approaches through a survey of contemporary policy literature. The three approaches; policy as action, policy as sustainability and policy as democracy intersect to create a grey area in which new democratic approaches to policy development might be further explored.</p> <p>This contribution to the contemporary cultural policy heritage narrative of the trans-Tasman region clarifies definitions and approaches utilised by policy makers in Australian and New Zealand government settings. It finds that cultural policy has been looping in a neo-liberal, post-democratic pattern of short-term cycles resulting in a cultural policy stasis and elitist decision making, which largely excludes the public. Recommendations for further research include exploration of new democratic approaches to cultural policy that could transform policy making to encompass multiple systems and perspectives that can strengthen the arts and cultural sector.</p>


Author(s):  
KENNETH GOODY

Between 1963 and 1983, not only was there a tremendous growth in the amount of money given to the arts by foundations, corporations, and government, but a substantial shift in the mix of these funds as well. While corporate support has remained a solidly important source, government funding has become increasingly important to the arts as foundation support has become less so. Given the dependence of arts organizations on these sources, the range of focus and purpose of their programs and their expectations for the future are important. A survey of private and corporate foundations and corporate giving programs highlights the hesitation of both of these groups to support artistic projects directly, experimental work, or newly established organizations. Additionally, both foundations and corporations have become more likely to fund administrative projects and arts service organizations. This range of focus of government support is very broad, but the purpose of this funding has been controversial. The short-term future of arts funding does not appear as dim as recently expected, and may bring increases.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Susan Richer

<p><b>During the COVID-19 worldwide health pandemic, with gigs cancelled, seasons postponed, travel ceased and unemployment increasing, calls for new approaches to cultural policy have emerged despite there being no shared understanding of what cultural policy is, does and could be. Governments in Australia and New Zealand have responded to the sector’s increased precarity with large-scale rescue funding packages, which are focussed on immediate relief and short-term survival. Even pre-COVID, it seems there was little interest in longer term cultural policy thinking.</b></p> <p>This research explores the legitimacy of cultural policy as source of sector sustainability through a review of contemporary cultural policy literature and insights from key players in the cultural policy space - arts and cultural bureaucrats, whose perspectives are usually muted. Norwegian sociologist Per Mangset (2020) suggests that western democracies may actually be facing the end of cultural policy, which has not adapted or responded significantly to major societal, economic and cultural changes of the last 50 years. While not conceding that cultural policy is a redundant practice, this research responds to Mangset’s provocation by identifying three key policy approaches through a survey of contemporary policy literature. The three approaches; policy as action, policy as sustainability and policy as democracy intersect to create a grey area in which new democratic approaches to policy development might be further explored.</p> <p>This contribution to the contemporary cultural policy heritage narrative of the trans-Tasman region clarifies definitions and approaches utilised by policy makers in Australian and New Zealand government settings. It finds that cultural policy has been looping in a neo-liberal, post-democratic pattern of short-term cycles resulting in a cultural policy stasis and elitist decision making, which largely excludes the public. Recommendations for further research include exploration of new democratic approaches to cultural policy that could transform policy making to encompass multiple systems and perspectives that can strengthen the arts and cultural sector.</p>


Resources ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Christine Persson Osowski ◽  
Dariusz Osowski ◽  
Kristina Johansson ◽  
Niina Sundin ◽  
Christopher Malefors ◽  
...  

Public food service organizations are large producers of food waste, which leads to greenhouse gas emissions and the waste of natural resources. The aim of the present article was to gain insight into reasons for food waste and possible solutions for lowering food waste in schools in Sweden. In order to do so, food waste quantification in school canteens in two Swedish municipalities and nine qualitative interviews with key actors were conducted. Both municipalities displayed a high degree of variation in food waste, but the common pattern was that serving waste constituted the largest fraction of food waste, followed by plate waste and storage waste, as well as a gradual decrease in food waste over time. Food waste was mainly a result of old, disadvantageous habits, such as overproduction due to forecasting difficulties, whereas new, better routines such as serving fewer options, better planning, and a less stressful environment are the key to lowering food waste. Because food waste varies from one case to the next, it becomes important to identify and measure the causes of food waste in each school in order to be able to establish tailor-made, conscious, and flexible food waste mitigation routines.


NASPA Journal ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Clark ◽  
Joan Hirt

The creation of small communities has been proposed as a way of enhancing the educational experience of students at large institutions. Using data from a survey of students living in large and small residences at a public research university, this study does not support the common assumption that small-scale social environments are more conducive to positive community life than large-scale social environments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-465
Author(s):  
Stanley N. Katz ◽  
Leah Reisman

AbstractThis article discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement on the arts and cultural sector in the United States, placing the 2020 crises in the context of the United States’s historically decentralized approach to supporting the arts and culture. After providing an overview of the United States’s private, locally focused history of arts funding, we use this historical lens to analyze the combined effects of the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movement on a single metropolitan area – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We trace a timeline of key events in the national and local pandemic response and the reaction of the arts community to the Black Lives Matter movement, arguing that the nature of these intersecting responses, and their fallout for the arts and cultural sector, stem directly from weaknesses in the United States’s historical approach to administering the arts. We suggest that, in the context of widespread organizational vulnerability caused by the pandemic, the United States’s decentralized approach to funding culture also undermines cultural organizations’ abilities to respond to issues of public relevance and demonstrate their civic value, threatening these organizations’ legitimacy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Niamh Humphries ◽  
Jennifer Creese ◽  
John-Paul Byrne ◽  
John Connell

Abstract Background Since the 2008 recession, Ireland has experienced large-scale doctor emigration. This paper seeks to ascertain whether (and how) the COVID-19 pandemic might disrupt or reinforce existing patterns of doctor emigration. Method This paper draws on qualitative interviews with 31 hospital doctors in Ireland, undertaken in June–July 2020. As the researchers were subject to a government mandated work-from-home order at that time, they utilised Twitter™ to contact potential respondents (snowball sampling); and conducted interviews via Zoom™ or telephone. Findings Two cohorts of doctors were identified; COVID Returners (N = 12) and COVID Would-be Emigrants (N = 19). COVID Returners are Irish-trained emigrant doctors who returned to Ireland in March 2020, just as global travel ground to a halt. They returned to be closer to home and in response to a pandemic-related recruitment call issued by the Irish government. COVID Would-be Emigrants are hospital doctors considering emigration. Some had experienced pandemic-related disruptions to their emigration plans as a result of travel restrictions and border closures. However, most of the drivers of emigration mentioned by respondents related to underlying problems in the Irish health system rather than to the pandemic, i.e. a culture of medical emigration, poor working conditions and the limited availability of posts in the Irish health system. Discussion/conclusion This paper illustrates how the pandemic intensified and reinforced, rather than radically altered, the dynamics of doctor emigration from Ireland. Ireland must begin to prioritise doctor retention and return by developing a coherent policy response to the underlying drivers of doctor emigration.


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Young-Joo Lee

Abstract Although nonprofit organizations are expected to contribute to public interests, their tax exemption does not necessarily entail serving the broader public. What, then, makes nonprofit organizations orient their work externally, serving the broader public, instead of internally, pursuing private goals? This paper examines this question by studying the link between nonprofits’ board governance, with a specific focus on boards’ racial diversity, and their contribution to public interests. The analysis of the 2015 US Local Arts Agency Census reveals that boards’ racial diversity is closely related with nonprofit arts organizations’ participation in serving the broader public through civic engagement and community development activities. The findings offer insights on how nonprofit boards, which are neither publicly elected nor publicly accountable, can be trusted to attend to broader issues of the public interest.


2021 ◽  
pp. 247255522110181
Author(s):  
Andreas Vogt ◽  
Samantha L. Eicher ◽  
Tracey D. Myers ◽  
Stacy L. Hrizo ◽  
Laura L. Vollmer ◽  
...  

Triose phosphate isomerase deficiency (TPI Df) is an untreatable, childhood-onset glycolytic enzymopathy. Patients typically present with frequent infections, anemia, and muscle weakness that quickly progresses with severe neuromusclar dysfunction requiring aided mobility and often respiratory support. Life expectancy after diagnosis is typically ~5 years. There are several described pathogenic mutations that encode functional proteins; however, these proteins, which include the protein resulting from the “common” TPIE105D mutation, are unstable due to active degradation by protein quality control (PQC) pathways. Previous work has shown that elevating mutant TPI levels by genetic or pharmacological intervention can ameliorate symptoms of TPI Df in fruit flies. To identify compounds that increase levels of mutant TPI, we have developed a human embryonic kidney (HEK) stable knock-in model expressing the common TPI Df protein fused with green fluorescent protein (HEK TPIE105D-GFP). To directly address the need for lead TPI Df therapeutics, these cells were developed into an optical drug discovery platform that was implemented for high-throughput screening (HTS) and validated in 3-day variability tests, meeting HTS standards. We initially used this assay to screen the 446-member National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Collection and validated two of the hits in dose–response, by limited structure–activity relationship studies with a small number of analogs, and in an orthogonal, non-optical assay in patient fibroblasts. The data form the basis for a large-scale phenotypic screening effort to discover compounds that stabilize TPI as treatments for this devastating childhood disease.


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