Podcast #57: Living an Artful Life: A Reflection on Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson’s Leadership

Across the nonprofit arts sector, national regranting programs are ending and institutional infrastructures are shrinking as philanthropy resets how it supports the field. In this moment of contraction and uncertainty, institutions can no longer afford to remain unprepared to work with artists on structural design. The Dance/USA Fellowships to Artists program (DFA) became one attempt to learn how.

AI is often framed as either a miracle tool or a looming threat, but what does it actually mean for disabled artists navigating grants, fellowships, and creative partnerships? In this episode, Meier Galblum Haigh [Hague] and Kenrya Rankin from Disability Culture Lab take over the GIA podcast to unpack the realities of AI, from access tools to authorship, labor, and institutional policy. Listen for an examination on how justice-minded organizations can channel conversations about AI that center on disabled artists’ autonomy, creativity, and care.

In philanthropy, when we think about all of the ways we are invested in our communities, we often don’t think about our retirement savings. Yet, around $20 trillion is invested in retirement savings across the United States. However, who gets to participate in our retirement systems, how decisions are made about our retirement money, and how that money is used before we retire are often complex and, frankly, hard to navigate in ways that align with our values.

Sunsetting a foundation isn’t just a financial decision; it’s relational and strategic. In this GIA podcast episode, Cate Fox (Center for Cultural Innovation) and Farhad Ebrahimi (Solidaire Network) share candid insights from their (completed and/or currently active) spend down journeys, unpacking how funders can collaborate to avoid funding cliffs, align resources, and strengthen the cultural ecosystem. This conversation tackles the tension between strategic clarity and trust, what it takes to foster vulnerability with grantees, practical steps funders can take to begin a spend down journey, and the importance of civic positionality.

We asked a simple, generative question: Which systems have we replaced, and with what alternatives? A clear chorus answers: we’ve lost too much to speed and spectacle, and we’re committed to building slower, more human infrastructures of care. Across voices, we hear a shift from optimization to stewardship, from extraction to relation, from technology to meaning. “We’ve emphasized education and the arts and rethought our political infrastructure for something more humane.” —Radha M. This is a practical imagination. It doesn’t trade in slogans; it drafts replacements—communication that protects dignity, mobility that privileges access, governance that codes care, and practices that rehearse the futures we want. Which system will you replace—and what will you grow there instead?