Bloomberg Philanthropies and others Redefine Arts Funding

Bloomberg Philanthropies and others Redefine Arts Funding

Bloomberg Philanthropies has supported creative placemaking and public art projects to strengthen communities. 

Conceptually speaking, embracing the view that the arts should be a means for positive social change is easy enough. The hard part comes when organizations—particularly established museums or less nimble "highbrow" outfits—recognize the need to engage more on social concerns, but lack a playbook for successfully making the pivot. Where should they start? What is the proper level of risk tolerance? How does proposed programming—to use Barr’s definition of "relevance"—acknowledge "social, political, and cultural contexts?"