THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION AWARDS TEXAS PERFORMING ARTS $450,000
TO HELP DEVELOP, ELEVATE, AND DIVERSIFY CLASSICAL MUSIC IN THE LIVE MUSIC CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

Austin, TX, June 20, 2011 – The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $450,000 to Texas Performing Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. This grant, the first Mellon Foundation award in Texas Performing Arts’ 30-year history, will help Texas Performing Arts expand the depth and breadth of its classical music presenting and participation over a three-year grant period. The project will support interdisciplinary programming, extended artist residencies, the commissioning of new work, and the formation of a classical music task force.

One third ($150,000) of The Mellon Foundation funding is conditioned on matching funds from new or increased contributions from individuals, corporations, or foundations. The remaining Mellon Foundation grant support will be matched by the Dean of the College of Fine Arts and the Executive Vice President and Provost of The University of Texas at Austin, bringing total funding for Texas Performing Arts’ classical music agenda to a total of $900,000.

This important funding will allow Texas Performing Arts to expand its classical music offerings in ways that are far more engaging for contemporary audiences. The grant will support programs that actively integrate classical music into the life, culture, and identity of Austin, and focus on building a more vibrant, sustainable, and engaged community of artists, scholars, and audiences for classical music.

The benefit to The University of Texas and the Austin community as a result of this funding is immeasurable. Texas Performing Arts will utilize these funds to expand its classical music programming, further its longstanding commitment to the commission and performance of new music, offer students unique residency opportunities with internationally renowned performing arts professionals, expand existing relationships with campus presenting partners, and foster new bonds with campus colleges and departments.

“We are honored and deeply grateful for this extraordinary support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,” says Texas Performing Arts Director and Associate Dean Kathy Panoff. “Through the broad range of activities outlined in this proposal, Texas Performing Arts hopes to inspire our community to appreciate classical music as a living, breathing, vibrant, and ever-changing organism that has a remarkable capacity to respond to the needs of a fast-paced and progressive society.”

“The ‘live music capital’ can be and should be a force for reviving live audiences for concert and ‘art music,’ as much as it is for popular and folk traditions,” remarks College of Fine Arts Dean Douglas Dempster. “This prestigious grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a resounding affirmation of Director Kathy Panoff’s vision of UT and Austin as a creative hub for the next generation of classical music performance and presenting. Texas Performing Arts’ classical music initiative promises to bring a cutting-edge sophistication to the cultural life of our campus and community.”

Texas Performing Arts

Situated on the main campus of one of the largest and most prestigious research universities in the country, Texas Performing Arts serves The University of Texas at Austin campus and the Austin community at large through a diverse season of world-class fine arts performances, educational activities, and collaborative partnerships.
Texas Performing Arts presents an international season of music, theatre, dance, and conversation in our multiple venues, as well as the best in touring Broadway productions and concert attractions. As a university-based arts center it is also committed to serving the academic mission of the College of Fine Arts by supporting the work of our students, faculty and staff on our stages, classrooms, studios and production shops; and in the educational outreach programs it provides for the Austin community.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation currently makes grants in five core program areas: Higher Education and Scholarship; Scholarly Communications; Museums and Art Conservation; Performing Arts; and Conservation and the Environment. Within each of its core programs, the Foundation concentrates most of its grant making in a few areas. Institutions and programs receiving support are often leaders in fields of Foundation activity, but they may also be promising newcomers, or in a position to demonstrate new ways of overcoming obstacles to achieve program goals. The grant making philosophy is to build, strengthen and sustain institutions and their core capacities. As such, The Mellon Foundation develops thoughtful, long-term collaborations with grant recipients and invests sufficient funds for an extended period to accomplish the purpose at hand and achieve meaningful results.

The Foundation’s Performing Arts Program provides multi-year grants on an invitation-only basis to a small number of leading orchestras, theater companies, opera companies, modern dance companies, and presenters based in the United States. The Foundation seeks to support institutions that contribute to the development and preservation of their art form, provide creative leadership in solving problems or addressing issues unique to the field, and which present the highest level of institutional performance. Grants are awarded on the basis of artistic merit and leadership in the field, and concentrate on achieving long-term results. Special consideration is also given to programs supporting generative artists—US composers, playwrights, choreographers, and artist-led theatrical ensembles.

Press Contact:
Gene Bartholomew
gbartholomew@TexasPerformingArts.org
512-471-0632

Download the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant press release – PDF 46 KB