Why I Backed a Kickstarter Effort to Redesign the Bible

YAHOO TECH
By Rob Walker

The Old Testament gets divided into three: the “books of Moses and the former prophets”
; the “latter prophets”; and the “writings.” The fourth volume is the New Testament. 

UTAH---Someone is redesigning the Bible. Perhaps your reaction is similar to mine when I encountered this news: somewhere between a smirk and an eye roll. Is there nothing that designers don’t want to reenvision? Does the most popular book of all time really need an aesthetic overhaul?And yet, roughly 20 minutes after I instinctively dismissed the idea, I had backed it on Kickstarter. [Lewis] Greene’s solution involves splitting the Good Book into four volumes, each about the size of a standard hardback novel. [link] This $37,000 project was successfully funded on July 27 at $1,440,345.

Lewis Greene has also made a new typeface and eliminated verse numbers and notes.

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Fitzwilliam Museum Bids to Acquire Weeping Virgin by Spanish Sculptor Pedro de Mena

ARTDAILY

Pedro de Mena (1628-1688), The Virgin of Sorrows (Mater Dolorosa), about 1670-5.

UNITED KINGDOM---A remarkably realistic painted wood bust of the Mater Dolorosa (Virgin of Sorrows) by Pedro de Mena (1628-1688), one of the most celebrated sculptors of the Spanish Golden Age, has gone on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge as part of an appeal to acquire the sculpture. It was most likely created for the private chapel, study or bedchamber of a devout patron, and would almost certainly have been protected under a glass dome and originally paired with a similarly-sized bust of the Ecce Homo (Christ as the Man of Sorrows). The Fitzwilliam Museum has already raised a substantial amount towards the work (including £30,000 from the Art Fund and £10,000 from The Henry Moore Foundation) but needs to secure a further £85,000 by the end of September 2014 in order to acquire the remarkable bust. [link]

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Robert Wilson Plans a “Library of Inspiration”

ARTNEW NEWS
By Alexandra Peers

Matthew Prest, Whelping Box, 2013. Courtesy The Watermill Center.

NEW YORK---Wilson is busily preparing for his $15,000-per-table annual bacchanal/gala when we speak, due to be held Saturday, July 26th. The invitation says “dress code: bazaar chic” but Wilson’s tip for guests is more specific. “Dress sexy and exotic.” Robert Wilson, when we speak by phone from the Hamptons (at his end, not mine), is hurried, gracious, and bubbling with news. He’s just gotten back from a meeting with prominent architect Roger Ferris and they’ve decided to go ahead with an expansion of his beloved Watermill Center performance-art lab. A new large, library that should be completed in about three years, Wilson brags, will be completely underground—and will be “what no one else is doing.” [link]

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Movie Review: Zach Braff Directs and Stars in ‘Wish I Was Here’

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Stephen Holden

From left, Pierce Gagnon, Zach Braff and Joey King in "Wish I Was Here." Credit Focus Features

HOLLYWOOD---Until you partly surrender to its underlying good will and sincerity, watching “Wish I Was Here” is like observing an experiment in a cinematic test kitchen. “Wish I Was Here,” which studies the turmoil of a middle-class Los Angeles family. The family under the film’s lens is the Blooms: a Jewish clan whose stern but caring patriarch, Gabe (Mandy Patinkin), a retired microbiologist, is dying of lung cancer. Gabe isn’t a lead role, but Mr. Patinkin’s moving, understated portrayal of a thorny older man facing the end makes him the film’s emotional center of gravity. He is especially impressive when his voice begins to waver and rise in pitch, and you feel the character’s deeply submerged emotion. [link]

“Wish I Was Here” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for language and some sexual content 

In April 2013, raised over $2 million in financing for “Wish I Was Here”

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To Some Dismay, Italy Enlists Corporate Medicis to Repair Monuments

THE NEW YORK TIMES 
By Gaia Pianigiani and Jim Yardley

A restoration of the Colosseum in Rome has been financed by the Italian luxury group Tod's

ITALY---Since early July, workers have been carefully unscrewing the steel scaffolding that for months has obscured much of the ancient facade of the Colosseum. Slowly, this monolithic symbol of Rome is coming into view again after the first portion of a 25 million euro ($34 million) refurbishment that underscores how Italy is coming to rely on private aid to preserve national treasures. “Our doors are wide open for all the philanthropists and donors who want to tie their name to an Italian monument,” Italy’s culture minister, Dario Franceschini, said in a telephone interview. “We have a long list, as our heritage offers endless options, from small countryside churches to the Colosseum. [link]

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Op-Ed: Donors Who Lavish Money on Elite Institutions Only Exacerbate the Wealth Gap

THE CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY
By Pablo Eisenberg

Most Americans probably think a major goal of philanthropy is to fight poverty. But a closer look reveals that giving by foundations and philanthropists exacerbates wealth inequality in the United States. Philanthropy has always benefited such elite institutions, but as the richest Americans have gotten richer, they are creating an even greater gulf between rich and poor. Meanwhile, "Giving USA" showed much smaller gains for social-service groups and other kinds of organizations that raise money primarily from people who aren’t multibillionaires.


Look at some of the trends:

• Thousands of local fundraising groups have been created to raise private money for public schools—and almost all of them channel resources primarily to schools attended by the children of people who live in affluent neighborhoods.
• Elite colleges and universities are the major beneficiaries of multimillion-dollar gifts, and its those kinds of donations that are a key reason giving to higher education grew 9 percent last year. Yet these institutions are so high-priced, few low-income and working-class students can afford to attend.
• Arts institutions saw donations soar in the past year, according to "Giving USA," also because of donations by the wealthy. Most of the institutions that benefit from the bulk of private donations are established institutions that cater to the upper and middle classes. 

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The Foundation Tally of Detroit’s Unprecedented Grand Bargain

NONPROFIT QUARTERLY
By Rick Cohen

What’s happening in Detroit this week might be the most momentous confluence of events affecting nonprofits and foundations in years, even decades. With the “Grand Bargain” likely to go through, having already received the state’s commitment to the plan to funnel capital to the underfunded pension funds through the mechanism of saving and converting the Detroit Institute of Arts and almost assuredly to get a positive vote from the city’s pensioners, the foundations and the state now face the challenge of mechanics. To get the unprecedented commitment of $366 million in foundation dollars into the public pensions, the foundations are creating a new 501(a)(3) “supporting organization” called the Foundation for Detroit’s Future. [link]

So let’s take a tally of what the Grand Bargain adds up to. For the Grand Bargain itself with funding going into the bankruptcy plan per se, the foundations committed to the deal are as follows:

•  Ford Foundation, New York City: $125 million
•  Kresge Foundation, Troy: $100 million
•  W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek: $40 million
• John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Miami: $30 million
• William Davidson Foundation, Southfield: $25 million
• Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, Detroit: $10 million
• Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Flint: $10 million
• Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Bloomfield Hills: $10 million
• Hudson-Webber Foundation, Detroit: $10 million
• McGregor Fund, Detroit: $6 million

In addition, two foundations are putting in money toward helping the Detroit Institute of Arts meet its $100 million commitment for its conversion to a nonprofit:

• A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Foundation, Detroit: $5 million
• Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation, Southfield: $2.5 million

Additional foundation grants committed to the plan but not clearly specified regarding their administration are as follows, including two new commitments from local auto companies:

• Ford Motor Co., Dearborn: $10 million
• General Motors Co./General Motors Foundation, Detroit: $10 million
• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York City: $10 million ($5 million contingent on the DIA’s raising of its $100 million)
• Chrysler Group: $6 million
• J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles: $3 million

Entirely separate from all of this is a commitment of $3.5 million from the Skillman Foundation to offset healthcare cuts for city retirees.

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NYC Pledges $23 Million to Arts Education in 2015

HYPERALLERGIC
By Alix Taylor

NEW YORK---New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña announced on Tuesday their plan to put $23 million toward hiring 120 new arts teachers and boosting arts resources in public schools across the city. The plan uses additional money from this year’s budget to guarantee the growth of arts programs in 2015. The announcement at the Bronx Museum of the Arts came after City Comptroller Scott Stringer released a report finding that 28 percent of city schools fail to employ even one full-time arts teacher. Fariña, who’s long been an advocate for arts education, sees the plan to bolster the arts at under-served middle and high schools as important to academic development. “The arts in many, many ways, particularly in middle school, make kids come to school,” she told the assembled press on Tuesday. [link]

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Giving Circles Popular With Minorities and Younger Donors, Says Study

CHRONICLE OF PHILANTHROPY 
By Tom Held

Groups of people who pool their donations and select beneficiaries together—known as giving circles—have become an attractive channel of philanthropy for women, minorities, and donors under 40, according to a new report. Drawn from two national surveys of American households, the data show that Americans of African, Asian, and Hispanic descent participate in giving circles at much higher rates than whites: 21 percent for blacks versus 10 percent for white non-Jewish donors, for example. [link]

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Effective Philanthropy Meets the Artists Where They Are

CREATE EQUITY | AFTA
By Ian David Moss

One of the dangers of project support, when pursued too zealously, is that it can take the funded organizations away from their core mission—and often, then, their core competencies. The whole point of supporting the arts, to my mind, is to encourage innovation, expectation-challenging, and all what goes along with leading a creative life. Laying out the path ahead of time with too-great specificity potentially squashes the very thing that makes the arts special. I think the same principle can be applied to artists, either when they are funded directly or when their activity is supported through a grant to an organization. I would like to think that most philanthropists who truly believe in the arts can trust creators enough not to try to do their work for them. [link]

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Searching for Juneteenth: The State of Black Museums — Part II

NONPROFIT QUARTERLY
By Rick Cohen

Many black museums face significant financial challenges, but that hasn’t stopped people in communities small and large from attempting to get museums established and operating. One-fifth of all revenues supporting arts and museums come from individual donors. While allowing for funds with multiple purposes, only 12 of the 75 African-American funds included the arts as one of their giving priorities, compared to 54 for education, 34 for economic empowerment, 24 for health, and 19 for children and youth. If the African-American community of this nation is going to educate others about the centrality of race in American history and the importance of African-American culture in the past and going forward, the ultimate success of fundraising for black museums may be in connecting with and mobilizing large numbers of African-American charitable givers and not waiting for seven-figure grants from Oprah. [link]


Editor's Note: This is the second of a two-part series on how African-American museums in the U.S. are faring amidst the competition for foundation, charitable, and governmental resources. Part I was an overview of the issues and challenges facing black museums; this piece examines the sources of funding and the strategies that some museums are using to survive and thrive.

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“Black Millennials” and the Black Church

THE FRONT PORCH
By Thabiti Anyabwife

Black Millenials raised in the black church are staying in the black church

Rather than leave the church in large numbers, it seems many African-American millennials look for churches that seem to “fit” their preferences. We’re not seeing attrition as much as we’re seeing shifting. The apparent unfamiliarity of African-American and Hispanic young adults with being treated as “special” hints at another reason why the general trend toward irreligion among millennials hasn’t taken root among African-Americans.  While overall numbers and rates of “irreligious” millennials have been growing in recent years, the same has not been true of African-American millennials. So-called “Black millennials” make up about 24 percent of Black church attendance, essentially unchanged from their parents and grandparents’ generations. [link]

• Are Black Millennials Being Pushed Out of the Church? Reflecting on a number of recent events where millennials were disciplined or removed from the church
• Why Aren’t Black Millennials Leaving the Church?”looked beneath the general statistics to discover some interesting differences between White and Black religious involvement.

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Giving Tuesday Charity Day Set for UK After it Enjoys Global Success

THE INDEPENDENT
By Nigel Morris

One of Giving Tuesday's US promotional posters

UNITED KINGDOM---The British man behind a global social media phenomenon that has transformed support for charities in the United States and several other countries is to launch his idea in the UK. Two years ago, Henry Timms hit on the concept of nominating one day a year for Americans – from major corporations and local communities through to individuals – to give some money or devote some time to a good cause. His focus on using  the power of social media to tap into people’s altruistic instincts helped the “Giving Tuesday” initiative to succeed far beyond its expectations. He launched Giving Tuesday two years ago and found it attracted 50 times the level of support he initially aimed for, winning online endorsements from Barack Obama, Bill Gates and a host of other celebrities. It is coming to Britain on 2 December and Mr Timms, who is originally from Exeter in Devon, is convinced the scheme will prove as big a success in his native land. [link]

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Hobby Lobby's Green Family Building Biblical Museum in Washington, D.C.

BRIETBART
By Dr. Susan Berry

The Green Collection, which had its debut in 2011, features items
such as pieces of the Dead Sea Scrolls and rare illuminated manuscripts.

WASHINGTON, D.C.---The Supreme Court is due to decide whether the owners of Hobby Lobby craft supplies stores can be forced by the federal government to include in their employee health insurance forms of contraception that are against their religious beliefs. The Green family, however, has set its sights on much more than a lawsuit against Obamacare: they hope to help Americans become more familiar with a book called the Bible. As noted by Politico’s Stephanie Simon, the Greens are “building a huge museum dedicated to the Bible a few blocks from the Mall in Washington, D.C., with as much public space as the National Museum of American History.” [link]

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Researchers Find That Americans Giving More to Arts Than Religion

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE
By Lauren Markoe

“2013 U.S. Charitable Giving By Cause” RNS graphic by Tiffany McCallen.

WASHINGTON, D.C.---Americans are slowly pulling themselves out of a charitable slump — except when it comes to religious groups. But religious groups saw donations drop 1.6 percent from 2012 to 2013. That contrasts to healthy jumps in education (7.4 percent), the arts and humanities (6.3 percent) and environmental and animal groups (6 percent), according to the study released Tuesday (June 17), which Giving USA produced with the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Behind the sad stats for religious groups, experts say, is  Americans’ declining interest in religious institutions. [link]

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Australia Post Donates Boss Ahmed Fahour’s $2M Bonus to Islamic Museum of Australia

HERALD SUN
By ELLEN WHINNETT

Australia Post chief executive Ahmed Fahour is patron of the Islamic Museum of Australia. Source: Supplied

AUSTRALIA---The Herald Sun can reveal Mr Fahour asked for the bonus to be donated directly to the ­Islamic Museum of Australia, of which he is patron. The donation was made months ago, but has only emerged now, when Australia Post is sacking 900 staff to stem the losses at its domestic mail division. Mr Fahour said he and his family had been able to make a “substantial contribution’’ to several not-for-profit organisations in recent years. “Earlier this year, I announced that my family had contributed $4 million to the Islamic Museum. We have also made contributions to a number of other community causes such as schools, sporting clubs and the arts,’’ he said. [link]

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A&O Invites Support for Museum of Biblical Art's "Back to Eden"

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS NEWS
By TAHLIB

"Study for Expulsion" (2000) by Fred Tomaselli Leaves, pills, acrylic, photocollage, and resin
on wood panel 24 x 30 in. © The Artist / Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai

This summer, NYC's Museum of Biblical Art will welcome more than 1,000 schoolchildren as these campers experience the new exhibition, "Back to Eden: Contemporary Artists Wander the Garden." In his June membership letter, Richard Townsend, the museum's new director shared his vision that "  Through discussion and activities, they will be introduced to the materials and themes found in these art works, and explore how artists interpret and address issues that impact our communities." The exhibition opens this month and runs from June 27 through September 28. The museum is one of the principal inspirations for A&O, and we invite you to join us in supporting their outstanding work with students, adults, and interfaith audiences by making your donation online today.

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Walters Art Museum Awarded $913K in Grants

THE BALTIMORE SUN
By Mary Carole McCauley

A haughty sheik stands at the entrance to his harem.

MARYLAND---The Walters Art Museum announced Monday that it's been awarded $913,000 in grants to support renovations and exhibitions at the museum, including a special show on Islamic art scheduled to open next year. That sum is made up of six individual donations — four from government agencies and two from private foundations — Walters spokeswoman Mona Rock said in a news release. The bulk of the money, $500,000 will be used to support "Pearls on a String: Art and Relationship in the Islamic World," which is scheduled to open in the fall of 2015. [link]

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