William and Flora Hewlett Foundation announces
$25 million for Bay Area arts funding

By Emmett Berg, Bay City News Service

November 27, 2006

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation announced recently the award of $25 million in grants to local performing arts institutions, an increase of about $10 million over grants awarded last year.

2007 marks the 40th year of arts grants by the leading Bay Area philanthropists. The grants are designed to help support new work and arts educational efforts.

"This is a commitment that has broadened and matured through the years," Moy Eng, director of the foundation's performing arts program, said in a statement. "Today, the program has stretched far beyond support for traditional cultural mainstays such as symphonies and ballet companies to embrace the wide-ranging cultural diversity that now signifies California."

The San Francisco Opera will receive $10 million to boost its endowment and fund new works. The San Francisco Symphony will receive $5 million to help continue its "Adventures in Music" program aiding arts education in public schools.

The American Conservatory Theater intends to use a $5 million grant from Hewlett to commission new work as part of its "Next Generation Campaign" to engage artists who are non-commercial or require special funding to foster their talent.

The San Francisco Ballet will use a $5 million grant as a matching gift to raise money to help complete its $35 million endowment campaign, which helps underwrite new works, pay touring costs and bolster its ballet school and arts education programs.

Since 1967 the Hewlett Foundation has awarded more than $188 million to roughly 1,900 performing organizations in the Bay Area.

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