Mile-High Musings on Arts, Culture, Creativity and Philanthropy

This reflection was created as part of my report to the Board of Directors at our recent quarterly board meeting. It seemed to me that it might be worth sharing more widely. So much has happened at the Foundation over the past ten years, it was a helpful exercise to try and capture those changes. I am sure I missed some! October 1, 2023, officially marked my ten-year anniversary at the Foundation. Inevitably with these milestones it is helpful to reflect on what has been accomplished, what has changed, and what remains to be done. Because this is an important and extensive story to tell, I hope you will indulge me as I share how the Foundation has transformed over these past ten years. Board/Governance I have worked with three (soon to be four) chairs in this time, starting, of course, with Lanny Martin, who led the search process that brought me to the Foundation. When I began it was a small board of five with no term limits and a Board that had not had a trustee of color in it...

2020 was a year unlike any other in my lifetime, and I have been through growing up during the 60’s civil rights struggle, the anti-war movement of the 60’s and 70’s, being in NYC for 9/11 and grappling with the massive economic impact of the 2008 recession. And now, I must bear not just the same personal impacts of 2020 (continuing into 2021) that everyone else is grappling with, but also the burden, privilege and responsibility of determining how Bonfils-Stanton Foundation can most effectively deploy its resources to respond. We have talked about it in some previous communications, but as we turn the corner into 2021, with the impact of COVID still very present, and the work of fighting racism ever present, I thought it might be helpful to reflect on what we have been doing, what I have been thinking, and where we are going. New Space A couple of years ago the Foundation had decided that our longtime home in the Daniels & Fisher Tower on the 16 th  Street Mall was no longer s...