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 2013

Amigos del Museo del Barrio, Inc.
$110,000
Divided as follows: $75,000 to help support El Museo del Barrio's non-school Family Programs and Cultural Celebrations; and $35,000 for capacity building during the period of executive transition

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 need-based scholarship program at the School of Dance and the recruitment and retention of students from underserved communities and/or low-income families

Ballet Tech Foundation, Inc.
$35,000
To help support Ballet Tech's program of pre-professional dance training for underserved youth

Bronx Children's Museum
$50,000
To help provide capacity building funds to continue the development of this new children's museum in the Bronx

Brooklyn Academy of Music, Inc.
$175,000 (over two years)
To provide capacity building support for BAM's Education programming expansion in the Richard B. Fisher Building

The Center for Arts Education, Inc.
$50,000
To help support CAE's public engagement and advocacy initiative to build support for and expand arts education in the schools.

Cool Culture, Inc.
$45,000
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

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution
$150,000 (over two years)
To help support DesignPrep, Cooper-Hewitt's design education and career preparation program for underserved New York City high school students

International Center of Photography
$40,000
To help support need-based scholarships and the retention and advancement of scholarship recipients in the Teen Academy and advanced-level Imagemakers programs

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc.
$50,000
To help launch the Lincoln Center HD in Libraries pilot project

Mark Morris Dance Group/Discalced Inc.
$20,000
To help support the Dance for Parkinson's Disease 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

The Museum of the City of New York, Inc.
$200,000 (over two years)
To provide capacity-building support to leverage prior investments in digital technology

New York Hall of Science
$50,000
To support an effort to deepen ties with local schools, educators, and parents, while continuing community outreach initiatives aimed at increasing participation in NYSCI programs by families in surrounding multi-ethnic communities

Third Street Music School Settlement
$45,000
To help support increased student engagement in the Comprehensive Training in Music program, improved access to music training for students with the greatest need, and development of a 'core faculty model'

Whitney Museum of American Art
$25,000
To provide capacity building support to help develop and pilot community-based educational programming for the Whitney's new downtown site

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 2013

Brooklyn Botanic Garden Corporation
$100,000 (over two years)
To help support the Garden Apprentice Program for middle and high school youth

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

The CityKids Foundation, Inc.
$40,000
To help support the CityKids performing arts program for inner-city youth

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution
$50,000
To help support the Saturday and Outreach Programs for New York City public high school students

Figure Skating in Harlem, Inc.
$100,000 (over two years)
To provide general support for this sports and academic program

Groundswell Community Mural Project, Inc.
$30,000
To help support afterschool and summer programming for underserved youth and its partnership with College Access: Research and Action

Hunts Point Alliance for Children
$50,000
To help support HPAC's arts and academics youth development programming, including the addition of a Young Writers Program for high school students

Jazz at Lincoln Center, Inc.
$75,000
To help support and expand the Middle School Jazz Academy for young people from underserved communities in New York City

Mind-Builders Creative Arts Company, Inc.
$50,000
To provide this arts education program with a capacity building support for youth development training and further development of its evaluation practices

New Heights Youth, Inc.
$40,000
To help support the College Bound Program

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

Publicolor, Inc.
$70,000 (over two years)
To help support the COLOR Club, Next Steps, and Summer Design Studio programs

Publicolor, Inc.
$20,000
To further develop the capacity to define and measure outcomes within Publicolor programs

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

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

Rocking the Boat, Inc.
$100,000 (over two years)
To provide general support for this youth development organization

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

The Young People's Chorus of New York City, Inc.
$30,000
To help support the after-school choral music education and performance program, and enhancements in program and organizational infrastructure

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