Internationally acclaimed artist Ping Chong gave a stirring keynote address to kick off the 2011 Annual Meeting in Tampa on December 9, 2011. #NewPlayTV streamed the speech in real time, but has also archived it. Also archived are the two showcase nights featuring Creation Fund artists Rosanna Gamson/World Wide, Thaddeus Phillips, Q-Roc and Kristina Wong, as well as Tampa artists Grant Peeples and Rebecca Zapen, Artist Block, Baye Kouyate, Suzanne Willett/Silver Glass Productions, Andrea Assaf/Art2Action, and James Tokley (Poet Laureate of Tampa).

See all three videos here.

You can also read Ping’s speech here.

NPN’s Visual Artists Network made a splash on the public plaza of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa during NPN’s Annual Meeting. Three PODs (Portable On Demand storage units) became temporary art sites for a week in December: Michael Premo and Rachel Falcone of Brooklyn (Housing is a Human Right), Margie Livingston of Seattle, and Jono Vaughan of Tampa created site-specific installations.

Read more…

U.S. organizations interested in hosting a Latin American artist or company, or U.S. artists interested in traveling to Latin America, can receive support from the Performing Americas Program’s Creative Exchange — you don’t have to be an NPN Partner to apply!

Letters of intent are due on February 17, 2012, with full applications due April 30, for projects to take place from August 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013. Guidelines and application forms are available online in English, Portuguese and Spanish or by writing to PAP Coordinator Elizabeth Doud at edoud@npnweb.org.

A recent report commissioned by National Center for Responsive Philanthropy calls on funders to reconsider their funding strategies to generate the greatest impact. (Previous reports focused on education and health funders; a focus on environment is scheduled for 2013). Holly Sidford authored the report, Fusing Arts, Culture and Social Change, that has provoked considerable conversation. Grant Makers in the Arts initiated a forum on equity in arts funding and invited fifteen field leaders, including NPN’s board chair Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson and CEO MK Wegmann, to write blogs. http://blogs.giarts.org/equity-forum/

“Just two percent of arts and culture nonprofits have budgets of more than $5 million but they receive 55 percent of contributions, gifts and grants.”


—Source: Urban Institute, National Center for Charitable Statistics Core File (2009), 2011.

US Artists recently announced its 2011 Fellows: 50 artists received $50,000 to use as needed, including a number of artists with NPN connections. Congratulations to:

• John Jasperse
• Michelle Elsworth
• Liz Lerman
• Morgan Thorson
• Holcombe Waller
• Nora Chipaumire

Check out all the recipients at unitedstatesartists.org and learn how to support their work (as well as other outstanding artists across the country), at www.usaprojects.org through US Projects, an innovative micro-philanthropy program.