The Foundation has had a longstanding interest in the arts, reflecting Benjamin Altman’s personal commitment and our belief in the essential role that cultural engagement and the arts play in enriching the lives of New Yorkers and creating new avenues of exploration and opportunity for the city’s young people. Given our particular focus on issues of access and inclusion, the Foundation invests in organizations, programs, and projects that achieve results aligned with the objectives outlined below. As a general rule, the programs that we support take place outside of the public schools. Please note that the "Results Sought" reflect the specific outcomes of interest to us.

Promote access to arts and culture for all New Yorkers, with a special focus on people from underserved communities

Results Sought:

  1. Increase sustained engagement and participation of underserved populations in high-quality programming at established arts and cultural organizations
  2. Strengthen the arts infrastructure in the city and build capacity at critical junctures for organizations providing high-quality arts and cultural programming
Grants 2010

Amigos del Museo del Barrio, Inc.
$225,000 (over three years)
To help support El Museo's non-school Family Programs and Cultural Celebrations

ArtsConnection, Inc.
$25,000
To help support the Take 5 and the Teen Reviewers and Critics (TRaC) programs

Ballet Hispanico of New York, Inc.
$25,000
To help support the Ballet Hispanico Scholarship Fund for talented and underserved youth

Ballet Tech Foundation, Inc.
$40,000
To help support Ballet Tech's program of pre-professional dance training for underserved youth

Bronx Children's Museum
$50,000
To help provide start-up funds to create a children's museum in the Bronx

Brooklyn Academy of Music, Inc.
$275,000 (over three years)
To support the planning, piloting, and implementation of new and expanded education, humanities, and professional development programs in the new Richard B. Fisher Building

The Center for Arts Education, Inc.
$25,000
To help support CAE's public engagement and advocacy initiative to build support for and expand arts education in the schools

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution
$100,000
To help support the Design Directions design education and career preparation program for underserved New York City high school students

Friends of the High Line, Inc.
$25,000
To help support the out-of-school activities of High Line Schools & Education, a portfolio of arts-based programs that promote creative environmental engagement

International Center of Photography
$50,000
To help sustain the Teen Academy and Internship Program at its recently expanded level

Mama Foundation for the Arts, Inc.
$20,000
To help support the Gospel for Teens program

Mark Morris Dance Group/Discalced Inc.
$20,000
To help support the Dance for Parkinson's program and the MMDG/NYCHA Partnership community outreach program

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
$150,000 (over three years)
To help bring high-quality arts and cultural activities to underserved K - 12 NYC students by training educators across disciplines, integrating new training strategies, and documenting changes in classroom practice

New York Hall of Science
$75,000
To help support the Early Childhood and Family Programs Initiatives

Queens Museum of Art (dba Queens Museum)
$150,000 (over sixteen months)
To help support the Art and Literacy for New New Yorkers program and develop an effective means of measuring, tracking, and reporting on the results of this work

Young Audiences New York, Inc.
$50,000
To help support the FamilyLink program

Promote positive youth development among underserved youth through engagement in arts, cultural, and other unique programs that provide sequential opportunities to participate over an extended period of time.

Results Sought:

  1. Significantly increase mastery of program-specific competencies and developmentally appropriate life skills
  2. Prepare participants to transition successfully to post-secondary and/or professional opportunities, including employment in the creative economy
Grants 2010

Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Inc.
$30,000
To help support the High School Fellowship Program and the Ailey Athletic Boys Scholarship Program

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Corporation
$50,000
To help support the Garden Apprentice Program for middle and high school youth

Brooklyn Youth Chorus Academy, Inc.
$150,000
$150,000 over two years to help provide high-caliber vocal musical instruction and performance opportunities for young people from diverse backgrounds and significantly expand BYCA's artistic and organizational capacity

Center for Family Life in Sunset Park
$50,000
To help support the Center's Life Lines Community Arts Project for underserved youth

Chess-in-the-Schools Inc.
$50,000
To help support the College Bound Program

The CityKids Foundation, Inc.
$35,000
To help support the CityKids performing arts program for inner-city youth

Cool Culture, Inc.
$37,500
To help support Literacy Through Culture, which offers professional development to early childhood educators and free access to the arts for families from low-income communities, and to help support the development of a performance measurement framework

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
$50,000
To help support the Saturday Outreach Program for New York City public high school students

Coro New York Leadership Center
$40,000
To help support Exploring Leadership, a program to promote meaningful civic leadership among inner-city high school youth

Downtown Community Television Center, Inc.
$40,000
To help support PRO-TV, which provides professional media training to inner-city youth

Education Through Music, Inc.
$40,000
To help support music education programs in inner-city Catholic schools

Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center/Lucy Moses School for Music & Dance
$40,000
To help support high-quality music classes for talented, underserved students in the Young People's Division

Figure Skating in Harlem, Inc.
$35,000
To help support the sports and academic program

Groundswell Community Mural Project, Inc.
$10,000
To help support afterschool programs for underserved youth

Hunts Point Alliance for Children
$50,000
To help support HPAC's Career and Education Mentoring Program

Jazz at Lincoln Center, Inc.
$75,000
To help support the Middle School Jazz Academy for young people from underserved communities

The New 42nd Street Inc.
$50,000
To help support the Youth Corps Program

Peter Westbrook Foundation, Inc.
$35,000
To help support the Academic Enrichment Program

Publicolor, Inc.
$30,000
To renew support for the COLOR Club and Next Steps programs

Queens Council on the Arts, Inc.
$20,000
To help support the High School to Art School (HS2AS) initiative

Riverdale Neighborhood House, Inc.
$25,000
To help support the Youth Internship Program and Library Leaders project

Rocking the Boat, Inc.
$50,000
To help support the Job Skills Apprenticeship Program

Row New York, Inc.
$25,000
To help support the Empowerment through Rowing and Academics (ERA) Program for girls and young women in New York City

Staten Island Children's Museum
$25,000
To help support the Museum Internship and Ambassador Program

StreetSquash, Inc.
$35,000
To help support the College Access and Beyond Program

Third Street Music School Settlement
$45,000
To help support the Comprehensive Training in Music program

The Young People's Chorus of New York City, Inc.
$25,000
To help support the after-school choral music education and performance program

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