Press Releases

Community Invests over $10 Million in the Arts

Cincinnati, OH—June 18, 2010

People all across our community will learn today how their support of the arts contributes to a significant investment in the creative things happening all over our region.

The Fine Arts Fund announced that community volunteers approved distributing $10.3 million to support the music, dance, museums, theatre, and other arts events and experiences all over the area. This investment is possible thanks to the support of thousands of people who contributed to the annual community campaign for the arts.

Community residents and our neighborhoods benefit in many ways from the arts. Arts organizations—like theaters, museums, and art centers—create vital neighborhoods and energized communities where people want to live, work, play, and stay. Music, storytelling, and dancing bring people together—connecting with each other, sharing ideas, and understanding each other in new ways.

View a complete list of these investments in the arts here.

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Submitted by Lisa Maly on Fri, 2010-06-18 14:23

Fine Arts Fund Announces New Community Goals

Cincinnati, OH – The Fine Arts Fund announced today that in the future it will focus on two community goals: connecting and engaging people through art and creating a more vibrant economy in our region.

The Fund anticipates that focusing on these goals will mean more people coming together who might not otherwise, an increase in dialogue and engagement, and young people more excited about learning. Arts organizations and events transform neighborhoods, attracting visitors and talented workers to live, work, play, and stay in this region.

The Fine Arts Fund board of trustees approved these goals at a meeting on May 7, 2010.

With this decision, the members of the board took another big step in the transformation of the regional organization from one primarily focused on the financial needs of arts & culture organizations, to one focused on the impact of arts & culture on the interests of our community.

Earlier this year, the staff and volunteers at the Fund hosted a dozen conversations with artists, educators, organizational leaders, and a diverse cross-section of community residents in locations all across the region. People were invited to share reactions to proposed goals for community investment in arts & culture and to discuss where the Fund can have the most impact in the future.

The Fund’s leaders developed the goals with input from more than 500 conversations with people in our region over the past two years.

Later this year, the Fund will announce a transition plan for the organization and a new name to reflect this mission.

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Submitted by Lisa Maly on Thu, 2010-05-13 03:40

Community Contributes $11 Million to Annual Community Campaign for Arts

Cincinnati, OH – Julie Janson, Chair of the 2010 Annual Community Campaign for the Fine Arts Fund and President of Duke Energy Ohio & Kentucky, announced that donors in our community gave $11 million for the arts in the annual campaign -- an amount equal to 100 percent of the contributions in 2009 and more than any other such campaign in the nation.

Ms. Janson noted that in February she had announced a goal of exactly that amount, saying: "We decided that we had to set an ambitious goal in order to ensure that people continue to share the benefits of the arts that make our community such a vibrant and appealing place. And this year, setting a goal equal to last year's donations was very ambitious."

"This is an extraordinary sign of community support for the arts and the benefits they bring to the entire area" noted Lee Carter, Chair of the Fine Arts Fund Board of Trustees. “People recognize that our dance, theatre, museums, music, art centers, and so forth make communities more vital and bring people together throughout the region. We set a very aggressive goal and people really communicated how much they value the arts with their donations.

In addition to their support of the Annual Community Campaign, several foundations -- including the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation -- made additional contributions in special initiative funding. Ms. Janson noted that the contributions from the Campaign and these investments total $12.3 million for the community in 2010.

Ms. Janson said, “There are many amazing stories about the breadth and growth of contributors this year." Noting that campaign contributors come from all across the region and most give less than $150, she described the efforts of "people who work in small non-profits, medium-sized service agencies, regional restaurant chains, and global companies where employees expanded their giving over last year."

“This would not have been possible without the efforts of hundreds of volunteers. During the campaign, we focused on the fun of the arts by working with people from all across the region to perform a surprise public dance to local music and we created pop-up galleries and shows on buses to kickoff the campaign. We've heard from all corners of the region: the arts make our community a great place to live and visit,” she concluded.

Ms. Janson announced the lead volunteer of next year’s community campaign for the arts, Edgar Smith, CEO of World Pac Paper.

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Submitted by Lisa Maly on Thu, 2010-04-29 13:07

Fine Arts Fund Seeks Even Broader Community Support

Cincinnati, OH–April 2010–The trend to date in this year’s campaign for the arts suggests that people who live in the greater Cincinnati region are more likely than last year to donate. Still – the total donated is down from previous years at this point.

Volunteers for the annual campaign for the arts are not surprised that 2010 is another challenging year for fundraising. The annual Community Campaign launched on February 17 with a goal of raising 11 million dollars.

It's a tough year everywhere in the country and in order to maximize efforts to reach everyone in the community who benefits from the music, dance, galleries, museums, festivals, community art centers and more, the community supporters of the arts are calling on everyone to help.

“More people than ever recognize that the whole communitybenefits from the way the arts make our region exciting and vibrant, and that the arts bring people together,” said Julie Janson, President, Duke Energy Ohio and Kentucky, who is leading the campaign this year.

Compared to this point last year, the campaign trend indicates more residents will contribute overall, but total dollars in hand are less than this point last year. Campaign leaders say they want to have more supporters overall, but it's still important to think about the total raised. Otherwise, there will be less for communities that benefit from the campaign support for nearly 100 large and small arts organizations across our region.

“We need everyone’s help in these final weeks,” said Mary McCullough-Hudson, President of the Fine Arts Fund. “We need to reach out to everyone—not just those who have given in the past or those who work at one of our employee campaign companies. We are encouraging everyone inthe Greater Cincinnati area -- volunteers, supporters, friends, neighbors, participants, and associates to step up and support this effort. We're very excited about finding new donors this year, which will certainly help us reach the goal.”

The annual community campaign—when people all across the region contribute to support the arts—which runs fora total of ten weeks, will wrap up on April 29, 2010. A grant from the CarolAnnand Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation will match contributions from new donors to this year’scampaign --doubling the impact of new gifts.

Last year the community invested 11 million dollars from 38,500 contributors to the campaign.

To donate now, visit the donate page on the web at https://fineartsfund.sbgpayments.com/.

For more information about the Fine Arts Fund, please visit www.fineartsfund.org or call 513.871.2787.

Submitted by Lisa Maly on Fri, 2010-04-16 15:58

New Series Celebrates Music, Dance, and Art

CINCINNATI (March 31, 2010) – This spring, large and small arts organizations across our region are sharing music, dance, theatre, opera, and visual arts at neighborhood community arts centers, in a new series—Fine Arts Fund Presents….

This initiative, sponsored in part by The Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile Jr./US Bank Foundation, will connect Cincinnati’s anchor arts institutions with community arts centers and other presenting partners across the region.

Through this new series, arts organizations will increase their presence and reach in neighborhoods and suburbs with performances, lectures, and events in Blue Ash, Sharonville, West Chester, Fairfield, Hamilton, and Oxford.

Fine Arts Fund Presents… programming begins on Sunday, April 18, 2010. This year’s series will run for two weeks, wrapping up on Sunday, May 2, 2010 and will close out the Fine Arts Fund community campaign for the arts. It is a pilot for a larger initiative coming this fall.

All performances/lectures are approximately one hour long and suitable for all ages.

For a complete schedule of these performances, please visit www.fineartsfund.org.

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Submitted by Lisa Maly on Wed, 2010-03-31 15:30