July 20, 2009, 10:05 pm
By Noelle Barton
As Twitter and other social-networking tools become more popular in getting the word out and communicating in the nonprofit world, Kris Putnam-Walkerly has compiled a list of foundations that tweet on her Philanthropy411 blog.
Among them are some of the biggest foundations in the country, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which supports many Web 2.0 projects.
Ms. Putnam-Walkerly also includes some foreign foundations in her listing, such as the GivenGain Foundation, in Switzerland. And she goes further to help members of the philanthropic world feel more like insiders, with a short list of foundation staff members who use Twitter.
She found these tweeters through a variety of methods, but we’re interested in learning who she may have missed. Please add a comment below with any foundations that could be added.
November 13, 2008, 11:35 am
By Noelle Barton
Broad challenges confront the arts world in the nation’s capital, the art critic Tyler Green writes on his blog, Modern Art Notes.
Among his concerns: poor leadership at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the lack of expansion at the National Gallery of Art, and the vacancy in the director’s office of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Mr. Green is posting several blog entries this week suggesting improvements that can be made at several capital-city institutions.
In his post about the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Mr. Green says the museum needs “radical” changes, and one of his two suggestions — sure to raise eyebrows — is to close the institution.
How do the struggles Washington institutions face compare with those in other cities? What do you think of Mr. Green’s observations and suggestions?
August 28, 2008, 3:13 pm
By Noelle Barton
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, has been busy vetting candidates to succeed Philippe de Montebello as leader of the institution, and may end up selecting Max Hollein, director of Frankfurt’s Städel Museum and the Schirn Kunsthalle, speculates Lee Rosenbaum , an arts writer, in her CultureGrrl blog.
Ms. Rosenbaum says that Mr. Hollein, a native of Vienna, is near the top of the list of candidates, according to sources familiar with the search. A candidate may be selected at a meeting of the board of trustees on September 9, after which a contract would be negotiated.
The fact that Mr. Hollein is young (he’s in his 30’s) but experienced, and holds degrees in business administration and art history, may be among the reasons why the museum may be interested in Mr. Hollein, Ms. Rosenbaum writes. From 1996 to 2000 he worked at the Guggenheim Museum, and is one of many…
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July 16, 2008, 8:29 pm
By Noelle Barton
The newest member of the board of directors at the Frick Collection, in New York, is vice chairman at Sotheby’s auction house, and the writer Lee Rosenbaum raises concerns about the appointment in her CultureGrrl
blog.
“Museums need to participate in the market as acquirers and sometimes as sellers, yet they must maintain their proper position of being a scholarly step removed from the commercial fray,” Ms. Rosenbaum writes.
The Sotheby’s official, George Wachter, specializes in old master paintings, which are central in the Frick’s collection. Ms. Rosenbaum says the appointment constitutes a conflict of interest -– one that has to be “vigilantly” monitored.
But, Ms. Rosenbaum also adds that a person such as Mr. Wachter would bring useful expertise to the oversight of the museum.
The Frick’s appointment of Mr. Wachter may prove more of a boost to Sotheby’s image than the…
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July 8, 2008, 1:19 pm
By Noelle Barton
A recent deal that involved transferring ownership of a major piece of western American art from the Denver Art Museum to a nonprofit organization controlled by Philip Anschutz has caught the attention of the Association of Art Museum Directors, which is now investigating the transaction, reports arts critic Tyler Green in his Modern Art Notes blog.
The deal, which transferred 50 percent of control over Charles Deas’s Long Jakes painting to the Anschutz Collection, also involved a gift of money back to the Denver Art Museum by the collection so the museum could purchase other works of art from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Mr. Green reports. The AAMD is questioning whether the arrangement adheres to its professional-practices guidelines.
Mr. Anschutz has been a major donor to the museum through his foundation (gifts since 2000 total $7.6-million) but he is not a museum board…
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July 2, 2008, 5:15 pm
By Noelle Barton
Why do the arts matter to people?
Andrew Taylor has created a public-service advertisement in support of the arts on his blog, the Artful Manager blog.
Mr. Taylor, director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin;s business school, produced an 84-second ad that proclaims “Art. It’s what’s inside.” His goal is to suggest that there is more to most people’s involvement in the arts than what some would think.
One shot shows a couple who enjoys the theater, quoted as saying “We believe that theater helps make our downtown vital. But that’s not why we come.” Later in the spot, they are shown again with this quote: “We come to share a moment that moves us.”
He invites readers to take his initial idea and run with it, tweak it, make it their own, in a contest to produce the best ad. The winner will be posted on the ArtsJournal home page, which is a…
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September 30, 2007, 1:22 pm
By Noelle Barton
A debate on the debate over who pays for philanthropy’s generosity — in the form of tax breaks for donations and the tax-free operations of nonprofit organizations — has sprung up on many blogs in recent weeks, with the latest critique coming from The Nonprofiteer, a blog written. by Kelly Kleiman, a nonprofit consultant in Chicago.
Ms. Kleiman counters an argument raised by Maxwell King, chairman of the Council on Foundations, in a letter to the The New York Times, responding to a article on the topic. Mr. King lauds the innovation philanthropy finances as a good reason for allowing tax money that could have assisted government programs to support foundation and nonprofit efforts.
But Ms. Kleiman says government is more efficient than donors, charities, and foundations — and asks readers to consider the comparatively low wages the government pays its own officials as an example. …
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August 2, 2007, 9:30 pm
By Noelle Barton
On-the-job experience at nonprofit organizations has taught Rosetta Thurman, featured in a question-and-answer interview on the Future Leaders In Philanthropy blog, that using her best judgment and problem-solving skills is often as important as formal training.
Ms. Thurman is director of development and finance at the Nonprofit Roundtable in Washington, D.C., where she has learned that, “there isn’t just one way to do something.”
Still, she says her education has made a difference. Her undergraduate degree in English helped prepare her for the technical and research writing that comes with many nonprofit jobs, while her master’s degree in nonprofit management informed her on the work of managing a nonprofit from “top to bottom.”
She encourages her Generation X peers in nonprofit organizations to embrace professional development opportunities.
Have you had an experience…
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