WORKING 5: Changing Funding Landscapes
KST Presents
Tuesday, February 23, 2021 | 6:00pm
Join us on Zoom! | Pay What Makes You Happy!
Facing a global pandemic and an ongoing reckoning with social justice, racial equity and the fight for Black and Brown lives, 2020 was a life-changing year for the world. As individuals and institutions come to grips with our new and, for some, newly understood realities, structures and pedagogies are being interrogated and sometimes dismantled to make way for a more just and equitable life. This panel discussion brings together foundation representatives Shaunda McDill (The Heinz Endowments), Nicole Henninger, (The Pittsburgh Foundation) and Jake Goodman (The Opportunity Fund) to share the impacts of 2020 on their work funding artists and organizations. Each speaker will present on the work of the foundation they are representing followed by space for questions from attendees.
When you register for Working: Changing Funding Landscapes, you qualify to win a gift card to one of our restaurant partners: Everyday’s A Sunday, Tana Ethopian Restaurant, Casa Brasil or Square Cafe! Don’t wait. Register today! The winner will be announced during the virtual event.
Shaunda McDill joined The Heinz Endowments in October 2017 as the Creativity Strategic Area’s Arts & Culture program officer, after more than a decade of nonprofit executive and arts management experience. Most recently, she was a publicist for the Blake Zidell and Associates, a Brooklyn-based public relations firm representing artists, arts institutions and festivals. Shaunda has worked for theater companies across the country, including The Goodman Theatre of Chicago, Second Stage Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse and Cornerstone Theater Company. She also founded demaskus, a nonprofit, service-oriented collective of artists and administrators who produce theatrical projects sharing stories of the marginalized. In Pittsburgh, Shaunda served as vice president of programming and cultivation at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture, where she managed all artistic and educational programs, and oversaw a $1 million programming budget. As the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s director of public relations, she headed both national and local public relations campaigns, including the North American premiere of Florentijn Hofman’s Rubber Duck Project, which generated more than $10 million in direct spending in the city. Shaunda has an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, where she studied under Pulitzer winner August Wilson, and an MFA in theater management from Yale University’s School of Drama. She is a member of several local and national organizations and boards.
Nicole Henninger joined the Foundation in 2012 and has since played an active role in arts and culture programming on multiple initiatives dedicated to individual artists and small and mid-sized arts organizations. She is a sought-after collaborator and currently plays a key role in the Foundation’s grantmaking for the arts, education and science. As a member of the Foundation’s arts and culture team, she works to enhance the capacity of individual artists and nonprofit organizations in the cultural sector. She works primarily with organizations supported through the A.W. Mellon Educational & Charitable Trust Fund, which provides support to small and mid-sized arts organizations and has recommended funding for organizations that reflect the Foundation’s desire for equity as a priority and driver for the art sector in Pittsburgh. She also plays a key role in the Change Agents in Education program and has coordinated the recruitment and training of cohorts of students and teachers across Allegheny County to introduce them to innovative ways to create change in public education and in the quality of life for youth and their families living in Pittsburgh. Additionally, she is an integral part of a new pilot to support youth-led organizations. Nicole is also project manager for the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation of The Pittsburgh Foundation, which provides funding for fundamental research in biology, chemistry, and physics at Pennsylvania institutions of higher education, working with staff, consultants, and advisors to execute the annual application and award process.
Jake Goodman is the Executive Director of the Opportunity Fund (www.theopportunityfund.org). He is an educator, activist, and performer with extensive experience in the (non-philanthropic) nonprofit world. He is a founding member of the NY-based activist group, Queer Rising, which demands full equality and dignity for all LGBTQ people through civil disobedience and direct action. He is the co-creator and performer in Kaddish, a stage adaptation of Nobel Prize-winning author Imre Kertész’s book, “Kaddish for an Unborn Child”. Jake has performed Kaddish in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, New York City and other cities across the US. BFA, Acting, Emerson College; MA, Experiential Jewish Education, Davidson Graduate School at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
WORKING 1: How to be an Artist in COVID
Tuesday, January 26, 2021 | 6:00pm
Join us on Zoom! | Pay What Makes You Happy!
This virtual conversation welcomes invited artists who will present on their processes translating their artistic practice into our new virtual reality.
WORKING 2: A Practical look at OBS with Jonathan Bucci
Tuesday, February 2, 2021 | 6:00pm
Join us on Zoom! | Pay What Makes You Happy!
This session introduces participants to OBS (Open Broadcasting Software), a free software video switching tool for live streaming and live to tape recording.
WORKING 3: Establishing COVID-19 Safety 
Protocols for your Art Practice
Tuesday, February 9, 2021 | 6:00pm
Join us on Zoom! | Pay What Makes You Happy!
Join us for a conversation about the considerations one needs to undertake, and the measures that should be set in place for collaborating safely through COVID-19.
WORKING 4: Navigating Unemployment with Peter Ennis
Tuesday, February 16 | 6:00pm
Join us on Zoom | Pay What Makes you Happy!
This session welcomes labor and employment lawyer Peter Ennis to cover the basics and best practices when it comes to navigating the Pennsylvania unemployment system.