MEDIA RELEASE: December 20, 2000

RI Foundation exceeds 2000 promise to arts
by granting $1.7 million for capacity building, arts in education, and new works in state

Also grants $356 thousand for education projects, bringing 2000 total for schools to $1.02 million

 The Rhode Island Foundation Board of Directors fulfilled – and far exceeded – a promise it made in January to donate significant support to the arts in 2000. With the approval last week of 31 new grants to stabilize arts organizations, increase arts programs in education, and to support new artistic works being created and presented in Rhode Island, the Foundation has committed $1,705,746 to its newest grantmaking category, instead of the $1.2 million it predicted earlier this year.

At the same meeting, the Foundation approved nine grants for education projects totaling $355,549, bringing total support for that issue area this year to $1,024,149.

“We hope our support is sending two very important messages,” stated Ronald V. Gallo, Foundation president and CEO. “One, the arts represent a major component of our efforts to sustain and improve Rhode Island. Two, by exceeding the state grant dollars available from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, we are challenging Rhode Island government to increase its own commitment to this vital area.”

Foundation Senior Vice President for Program Ronald D. Thorpe said arts organizations were encouraged to apply within four strategies: arts in education, community and public art, capacity building for arts organizations, and support for new works. Thorpe continued, “In Arts and Education we set out to bring together community arts organizations, schools, and artists to help establish the arts as a central part of schooling and life for all children.

“With community and public art, we are trying to bring the public into direct contact with artists and art because of our basic belief that the arts build community and bring people together.
As for capacity building, this is our best effort to help arts organizations of all types strengthen their ability to control their own destiny, or at least to gain an additional measure of control. 

“Finally, there is something especially tantalizing about the eight projects we selected under
the category of ‘new work.’ Each of these proposals holds the promise of giving birth to stunning
new work, some of which might succeed to dazzle audiences for years to come.” Thorpe said the
new works were reviewed and recommended by an outside committee of artists.

Among other large arts grants made earlier this year, which bring the total funding in the arts  to $1.7 million, were $300,000 for Trinity Repertory Company’s new theater, and $100,000 to the Providence Performing Arts Center for physical improvements, Thorpe said.

ARTS GRANTS
 Programs funded through arts grants are poised to benefit Rhode Islanders from Westerly to Woonsocket and from Newport to Providence, with the majority of grantees reaching out to a statewide audience. 

• Arts in Education
  Spectra Rhode Island at the Massachusetts-based Education Development Center, $90,000, for expansion of a comprehensive school reform program.  The program uses the arts to stimulate academic change in students and professional development in educators in Bristol-Warren, Narragansett, North Kingstown, and Providence districts.  In its first year, Spectra RI saw improvements in student attendance, behavior, teacher motivation, camaraderie, and parent participation.
• Brown University’s Arts & Literacy Project, $80,000, for continued support of professional development for teachers and artists.  Merging reading and writing with performance in special workshops, the project is built on the premise that learning in theater and other arts can effectively be applied to all kinds of learning. The project currently focuses its efforts on middle and high schools in Central Falls and Providence.
• AS220’s Broad Street Community Studio, Providence, $43,000, for a transitional arts education program designed to reduce the one-third recidivism rate for ex-residents of the Training School.  The program, in partnership with Tides Family Services of West Warwick, will include job training and counseling to introduce young males recently released from the Training School to arts as a career opportunity.

Community and Public Art

• International Gallery-Heritage & Culture’s Building Communities through the Arts, $65,000, to bring arts programs to neighborhood and community centers in Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence, and Woonsocket which reflect the heritage and culture of minority groups of color and recent immigrants who reside in these areas.
• Woonsocket Neighborhood Development Corporation, $60,000, to convert an abandoned storefront into an apartment and studio/learning center for an artist-in-residence.
• Westerly Shakespeare in the Park operated by the Colonial Theatre School, $35,000, for a development officer to build a $1 million endowment fund for Westerly Shakespeare to secure the future of the free, summer series of Shakespeare plays.
• WaterFire Presents, $25,000, for the first phase of a three-year project by WaterFire Providence to develop, with a number of collaborators, performing arts and site-specific performance arts for the large, diverse audiences who gather for WaterFire.
• RI Black Storytellers, $21,246, to support “Funda and Beyond,” year-round programming activities and organizational development for this arts group, operated by Direct Action for Rights and Equality, Providence, which focuses on keeping the Black oral heritage alive throughout the state.

Capacity Building

• Providence Black Repertory Company, $55,000 for a director of resource development.
• Chorus of Westerly, $50,000, toward renovation and expansion of its facility, a former church building, which is the setting for performances by the 210-member group.
• Duncan Avenue Arts Collaborative, Providence, $50,000, to hire a marketing director and develop a marketing strategy.
• Rhode Island Philharmonic’s Play On, Providence, $50,000, towards a campaign to broaden its donor base and substantially increase the annual fund.
• Stadium Theater Foundation, Woonsocket, $50,000, for continuing support to restore the theater, an anchor in the development of Woonsocket’s downtown revitalization plan.
• The Gallery at The Rhode Island Foundation, Providence, $35,000, to support programming, installation costs, and outreach for the eight shows planned for 2001, the gallery’s first full year of operation, and to enable the gallery to remain free and open to the public.
• Cadence Dance Project, $31,000, for organizational and board development of this Providence-based contemporary ballet company and toward the salary of the company’s first paid staff member.
• Island Arts, $30,000, for this Newport organization’s efforts to diversify its audience, expand its outreach to underserved populations, develop new sources of revenue, and link its exhibition space to new educational opportunities.
• Newport Art Museum, $30,000, toward the salary of a director of development who will be responsible for increasing the capacity of the annual fund, the capital and endowment campaigns, and foundation/other grant support.
• Island Moving Company, $28,000, to help increase the staff and management capacity for Newport’s only resident dance company with the goal of increasing audience size, expanding its geographic service area, and reaching out to more students.
• Festival Ballet of RI, $25,000, toward the salary of a development assistant to increase the fundraising capacity of this North Providence-based dance company.
• South County Art Association, $25,000, toward projects to make the facilities handicapped- accessible and to create an on-line art gallery for the Kingston-based association.
• Ocean State Chamber Orchestra, Providence, $20,000, to assist the 10-year-old orchestra in hiring its first paid staff member who will work on broadening audience, improving management and fundraising, and increasing the number of performances of this group.
• Community Music Works through West End Community Center, Providence, $10,000, for capacity building through organizational development, public relations, board and staff development, and strategic planning.
• Expansion Arts, $40,000, a joint project of the Foundation and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts to support the growth and development of emerging and culturally diverse arts organizations serving African-American, Asian, Cape Verdean, Latin American, and Native American populations (among others) through technical assistance, mentorship, and grants.

Support for New Works

• Mihailo Djuric, artistic director and choreographer at Festival Ballet, North Providence, $17,000, to work with Chris Van Allsburg, Eugene Lee, and Barbara Kolb to create a new dance/theater work based on Van Allsburg’s book, The Widow’s Broom.
• Marc Joel Levitt, working through Courthouse Center for the Arts, West Kingston, $15,000, to create a 30-minute documentary about the Native American stone wall builders of southern Rhode Island.
• Michele Leavitt, working through Newport Art Museum, $15,000, for the construction and exhibition in the summer of 2001 of an installation entitled “Precious and Precarious.”
• Tom Sgouros, working through What Cheer Art Company, Warwick, $15,000, for the design and construction of the large scale instruments depicted in Hieronymus Bosch’s painting “Garden of Earthly Delights” with a theatrical work as the ultimate goal.
• Island Moving Company, Newport, $14,500, to develop and present a national Choreographers Competition to identify and nurture emerging choreographers with a winning ballet to be commissioned for the 2002 season.
• Rose Weaver, working through First Night Providence, 2002, $14,000, to create a trilogy of one-act plays about black families called “The Blues Is and Aint.”
• L. Lanham Bundy, through Very Special Arts, Pawtucket,  $7,550, to learn from and to inspire people with disabilities at Very Special Arts to create artworks.
• Vanessa Gilbert, through Perishable Theatre, Providence, $7,500, to enable the writer/director/puppeteer to adapt Jane Eyre through research with puppet artists.

EDUCATION GRANTS
Grants in education focus on three target areas: professional development of teachers, encouraging innovation and invigoration throughout school systems, and increased parent/family involvement.

Professional Development

RI Writing Project through the Rhode Island College Foundation, $46,000, to develop teacher leadership capacity so the project can expand its statewide offerings, create greater access for under-served school districts, and provide more flexible programming.

Computer Technology in the Education of the Learning Disabled at St. Andrew’s School, $30,000, for continuing support of the independent school’s technology integration plan with emphasis on educating students with learning disabilities

Innovation and Invigoration

• Meeting Children’s Special Needs, a program of the Bradley Hospital Foundation, $75,000, as a challenge grant for its capital campaign to build and equip a new school in South Kingstown to serve children and families in the South County area.
• RI Children’s Crusade for Higher Education, $50,000, toward the costs of a comprehensive program evaluation of current program activities.
• An Art and Healing Program, Rhode Island School of Design, $40,000, to involve RISD students with children at Bradley Hospital in a series of creative arts projects for a full academic year.
• Safe Schools Institute through Youth Pride and in collaboration with the Rhode Island Department of Education, the Rhode Island Task Force on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth, and Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, $39,069, for third year funding of this statewide program to make schools safe and tolerant for students struggling with sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Inside Mental Illness, a program of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Rhode Island, $30,000, to promote awareness of mental illness to 2000 students in seven middle and high schools in Central Falls, Pawtucket, and Providence.
• Rhode Island Capitol Forum on America’s Future 2001, through Brown University, $15,480, for this program which engages high schools students from across the state in a deliberative, hands-on process examining the role of the United States in a changing international environment.

Parent/Family Involvement

• Students and Parents Taking Action for a Real Tomorrow (START) through Direct Action for Rights and Equality, $30,000, for second year support of this grassroots organizing effort of students and parents to become full participants in reform efforts in the Providence Public Schools.

MINI-GRANTS
The Foundation also made “mini-grants” of $5,000 or less benefiting each of its four major grantmaking areas.  In the Arts, mini-grants were awarded to the Center for Hispanic Policy and Advocacy, Fiestas Patronales Puertorriquenas de Rhode Island, First Night Providence, Hera Gallery, Riverside Middle School, and Sandra Feinstein Gamm Theatre.
In Education, mini-grants were awarded All Kinds of Minds, Bishop Hendricken High School, Big Picture Company, Business Education Roundtable, Coventry School Department, Hamilton Institute, and Smithfield School Department.

Mini-grants in Children & Families were awarded to Heritage Harbor Corporation, Oakland Beach Learning Center, Rhode Island Air National Guard, the Freda H. Goldman Education Awards, Rhode Island Parent Information Network, United Way of Southeastern New England, Volunteer
Center of Rhode Island, West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation, and YWCA of Greater Rhode Island.

Mini-grants in Economic & Community Development were awarded to the Clean Land Fund, Community College of Rhode Island, Democracy Compact, Friends of Music Mansion, Grow Smart Rhode Island, National Conference for Community and Justice, Providence Plan, Town of Charlestown, Town of Scituate, and Trust for Public Land.

The Foundation Board of Directors will hold its next grantmaking meeting in April, to review proposals in the focus area of Children and Families.