Funds to go toward enhancing and maintaining MacDowell’s facilities
Peterborough, NH -- June 29, 2011 -- The MacDowell Colony, one of the nation’s leading nonprofit artist residency programs, is pleased to announce that it has been selected to receive a $1 million grant from the Kresge Foundation’s Facilities and Building Reserve Grant program. Awarded to the Colony’s Campaign for the Second Century — a $13 million fund-raising endeavor, the largest ever undertaken at MacDowell — the grant money will go toward the construction of a new library building designed by world-renowned architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, and a board-designated capital reserves fund that will be utilized to offset the cost of long-term care and maintenance of the Colony’s buildings and facilities.
In presenting the grant to the foundation’s board of trustees, Kresge arts and culture program officers noted that MacDowell is a national and international leader in its field that, “contributes to the liveliness of the arts and the cultural ecosystem.” Ensuring the high-quality experience that resident artists at MacDowell have come to expect, the Kresge grant is an investment in the Colony’s immediate and future capital needs. Cheryl Young, MacDowell’s executive director, elaborates on how this funding will help to secure the Colony’s future: “The new building reserve fund made possible by Kresge will support a systematic stewardship plan for the Colony’s buildings, including the 32 artist studios. At the rate of one per year, each will be thoroughly renovated every 40 years.”
Funds from the Kresge grant will also help make the Colony’s plans for a new state-of-the-art library center a reality. Providing ready access to works of every medium, the new library building — which will complement the Colony’s existing Savidge Library — will be a contemporary and versatile space for artistic presentation, research, and archival collections. Adding nearly 3,000 square feet of flexible space, the new complex will encourage open discourse between artists of diverse disciplinary backgrounds and will also enable MacDowell to add to its collection of contributed works from Colony Fellows, which currently stands at more than 10,000 items.
The Kresge Foundation is a $3.1 billion private, national foundation that seeks to influence the quality of life for future generations by creating access and opportunity in underserved communities, improving the health of low-income people, supporting artistic expression, increasing college achievement, assisting in the revitalization of Detroit, and advancing methods for dealing with global climate change. The foundation works in six program areas: arts and culture, community development, education, the environment, health, and human services.
With the $1 million grant from Kresge — which matches the largest contributions received in MacDowell’s 104-year history — commitments to the Campaign for the Second Century have surpassed the $12 million mark. The deadline for the Colony to reach its fund-raising goal of $13 million is March 31, 2012.
