I just returned from the annual Grantmakers in the Arts (GIA) conference in Brooklyn.  And as usual, I am so full of ideas and inspiration that it will probably take a couple of blog posts to get to all the stuff I want to share.  But if you want a...

So Tom Hanks was just here and Cleveland basked in the glow of his attention, charm, and the loyalty he maintains to his professional roots here at the Great Lakes Theater Festival. We are proud he got his start here back in the ‘70s and that pride is...

This past week the foundation was host to Helmo Hernandez, the president of the Ludwig Foundation of Cuba, one of only six charitable foundations in that country.  The Ludwig Foundation is dedicated to the support of contemporary art in Cuba and of the...

The Anisfield-Wolf SAGES Lecture at Case this week was delivered by Jamaica Kincaid, a 1997 winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.  Ms Kincaid is known for her perceptive and thought-provoking writing on gardening as a metaphor for life. Her lecture is part...

Please note I said open season FOR the artist.  The first round of Fellowship grants to 20 local visual artists was delivered recently by the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture.  The second round, for performing and literary artists, is now in the...

The foundation just completed its third and final year of SmART in the City, a unique, comprehensive summer arts camp for urban pre-teens.  It is with both pride and sadness that I think back on the three summers past.  Pride, because the foundation created...

Last week the foundation hosted Michael Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center, in a conversation with Cleveland’s cultural community about the challenges facing the arts in this cold economic climate.  Dubbed “the Turnaround King” for his successful...

Here’s a fact little known by the public but very well understood by everyone who works in the nonprofit sector:  Government funding can put programs and even nonprofit organizations themselves at risk.   How?  Kathleen Enright, executive director of...

For nearly 12 years the Cleveland Foundation has made a concerted effort to strengthen a group of cultural organizations that are important to the diverse quality of our cultural sector. But many have business models that carry a lot of risk and...

No matter how much we would like the value of the arts to be readily acknowledged and supported by the public, the reality is that art is not universally embraced as an intrinsic human value.  Art needs champions.  We need these champions at every level...