Matthew Deleget
In November 2002, the New York Foundation for the Arts' website at www.nyfa.org will be transformed into NYFA Interactive. The website will make available many new and exciting interactive features to the 120,000 individuals (artists, arts organizations, arts supporters, and the public) who use the site each year. Here is a breakdown of its pathways and features. Bookmark the site and put it to good use each week!
On the Homepage
The new homepage of NYFA Interactive will be a hive of activity providing users with a wealth of information concerning support for the arts. The site is organized around four major pathways?For Artists, For Organizations, For Donors, and For Art Curious—and five minor pathways?News, NYFA Artists, About NYFA, Support NYFA, and Site Map. Several new features, in particular, should be highlighted. Each week, the homepage will feature three NYFA artists. Additionally, the site will provide users with access to the best national arts news and information in the country. Under the heading NYFA Headlines, users will be able to access news briefs, theoretical articles, practical information, job listings, events, deadlines, and opportunities, all pulled directly from NYFA’s new and improved publications NYFA Quarterly (formerly FYI: For Your Information) and NYFA Current (formerly Arts Wire Current). NYFA Quarterly is New York State’s most widely distributed arts publication with an estimated readership of 75,000; NYFA Current is read by over 15,000 individuals online each week. Lastly, additional information on almost any arts-related subject can also be found by clicking on NYFA Interactive’s Site Search feature, which enables users to search the site by keyword.
For Artists
The For Artists pathway provides information on all of NYFA’s ongoing grants and services for individual artists: Artists?Fellowships, Career Advancement Mini-Grants (Special Opportunity Stipends), Stipends for Artists Who Teach (Artists in the School Community Planning and Implementation Grants), and the Fiscal Sponsorship program.
Moreover, for the past two years, NYFA has been working with the Urban Institute in Washington, DC, on a major national study concerning individual artists, called Investing in Creativity: A Study of the Support Structures for US Artists. One component of the study is a huge expansion of NYFA’s former Visual Artist Information Hotline into a resource serving artists working in all disciplines: dance, music, theater, performance art/interdisciplinary, visual arts, media arts, design arts, literature, folk/traditional arts, along with arts management, while serving interpretive as well as originating artists.
NYFA Interactive will feature a state-of-the-art search engine, dubbed NYFA Source, that will allow users to search from over 5,000 programs serving individual artists nationwide, including international programs. This includes 2,500 arts organizations, nearly 2,600 award programs (grants, residencies, apprenticeship/professional development programs, space and housing awards, equipment access awards, and honorary prizes), 2,000 service programs (topic headings include arts education, career resources, funding/fundraising/finance, business/legal, arts professional/equipment, insurance, space, exhibition/presentation/publishing, and special audiences), and nearly 700 publications (books, magazines, newsletters—both online and offline). Users can search programs by gender, age, ethnicity, geographic location, career point requirements, and more. The database is the first of its kind on the planet, and is free, up-to-the-minute, and available 24/7. Additionally, NYFA Source will be supplemented by the same toll-free hotline and email address (800-232-2728/hotline@nyfa.org) offered since 1996 by NYFA’s former Visual Artist Information Hotline.
For Organizations
The For Organizations pathway features information about all of NYFA’s ongoing programs for arts organizations, such as: the NYFA Leadership Initiative, Artists in the School Community (Planning Grants, Implementation Grants, and Technical Assistance Program), Cash Flow Loans, and Fiscal Sponsorship. Additional links and resources outside NYFA that are vital to sustaining arts organizations will also be accessible from here.
For Donors
The For Donors pathway provides those who support the arts with a full description of how NYFA can work with them in support of artists. Information can be found here on donor-advised funds, trusts, and estate planning. Profiles of NYFA supporters and NYFA artists in the news are also offered, as is NYFA’s donor newsletter, The Gift.
For Art Curious
The new For Art Curious pathway offers a wealth of information to anyone interested in learning about contemporary art. Included are articles on contemporary art, information on NYFA’s artists and supporters, upcoming and past NYFA exhibitions and events, and links to other resources on the web.
News
The News pathway delivers the best arts news and information on the web. Culled from a variety of sources, such as NYFA Quarterly, NYFA Current, as well as NYFA’s events, deadlines, and calendar, this pathway will be updated daily with new and interesting articles, announcements, and other content.
NYFA Artists
This new pathway will showcase more than 3,000 NYFA artists who have received either an Artists?Fellowship (dating back to 1985), Catalogue Project award, Building Up Infrastructures in Dance award, and/or have worked with NYFA’s Fiscal Sponsorship program. Users will be able to search by artist’s last name, discipline, and/or NYFA program. This section will be augmented over time to include a short bio, artist statement, links to website and email addresses, and, in the near future, work samples from each artist.
About NYFA
Click on this pathway to learn more about NYFA’s mission statement and history, ongoing programs and special projects, staff and board lists and contact information, job openings at NYFA, and press releases.
Support NYFA
This pathway will allow NYFA Interactive users to support NYFA by making financial contributions to its programs directly though the website.
Further Questions?
Starting November 2002, please visit NYFA Interactive at www.nyfa.org or contact Matthew Deleget with questions at (212) 366-6900 x215 or at deleget@nyfa.org.
Funders
The design and launch of NYFA Interactive has been made possible by a generous grant from the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.
A regular column in NYFA Quarterly, Ask Dr. Art is made possible through the generous support of the Hotline’s Consortium: Basil H. Alkazzi; Lily Auchincloss Foundation, Inc.; The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts; Richard Florsheim Art Fund; The Robert and Helen Gould Foundation; Independence Community Foundation; The Liman Foundation; Albert A. List Foundation, Inc.; Virginia Manheimer; The Joan Mitchell Foundation, Inc.; Eva J. Pape; Pew Fellowships in the Arts; The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc.; The Judith Rothschild Foundation; The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation; and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
