Boston arts institutions win $4.6m in grants
The Wallace Foundation today will announce plans to give $4.6million in grants to seven Boston arts institutions, the largest to the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Museum of Fine Arts.
The foundation's Excellence Awards, designed to bring more people to museums, concerts, and plays, will be spread over three to five years. In addition, the Wallace Foundation is giving the Boston Foundation a $700,000 grant to build relationships between local arts groups.
In the past, Wallace's Excellence Awards were distributed throughout the country. This year, for the first time, the foundation focused on two cities, Chicago and Boston. A foundation spokeswoman said that previously, a disproportionate number of New York-based organizations won grants.
"It's absolutely remarkable, this cluster of grants to Boston, which shows great confidence in the nonprofit sector here," MFA director Malcolm Rogers said.
Nineteen organizations applied for the grants. Seven were selected, with the MFA and BSO receiving $1.1million each. Boston Lyric Opera, the Huntington Theatre Company, the Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will receive $500,000 each. From the Top, a non profit organization that encourages children to play music, gets $368,000.
Not every arts group in Boston was eligible . Applicants were required to have a budget of $1million or more because the Wallace Foundation wanted award recipients to chart the impact of the grants, and believes a smaller organization would not be able to, said a foundation spokeswoman.
The Huntington will use the money to improve the theater's website and marketing efforts. "We're exploring a way to use the Internet to build community," managing director Michael Maso said yesterday.
The MFA plans to experiment with ways to bring the mus eu m's galleries alive . This effort comes three years after the MFA tailed 31 visitors as they toured the museum, asking them to suggest ways to improve the experience. "This could be as simple as maybe a cart that will be in the gallery at certain times with the material people could touch, " said Susan Longhenry , director of museum learning and public programs.
