2009 Report on Activities
Annual Report
Arts & Culture in Chicago
Support for 200 arts and cultural organizations in Chicago and the region is an expression of civic commitment to the place where the Foundation has its headquarters and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur made their home. Grants are designed to help sustain the cultural life of the city and region. More »
Number of Grants:
58
Adler Planetarium (Chicago, Illinois)
$375,000 in support of general operations (over five years). (2009)
Anima-Young Singers of Greater Chicago (Glen Ellyn, Illinois)
$50,000 to support a tour and cultural activities in Spain and Morocco. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Black Ensemble Theater (Chicago, Illinois)
$80,000 to support succession planning and technology upgrades (over two years). (2009)
Black Metropolis Research Consortium (Chicago, Illinois)
$150,000 to support start-up costs (over two years). (2009)
Cambodian Association of Illinois (Chicago, Illinois)
$75,000 to support succession planning and to build a cash reserve. (2009)
Chicago Chamber Musicians (Chicago, Illinois)
$10,000 to support a Chicago premier of the multimedia production, "Strange News," depicting the lives of child soldiers in Africa. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Chicago Children's Choir (Chicago, Illinois)
$250,000 in support of general operations (over five years). (2009)
Chicago Council on Science and Technology (Chicago, Illinois)
$125,000 in support of start-up costs and general operations (over two years). (2009)
Chicago Human Rhythm Project (Chicago, Illinois)
$40,000 to support curriculum development and a performance tour in China. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Chicago Humanities Festival (Chicago, Illinois)
$250,000 in support of general operations (over five years). (2009)
Chicago Moving Company (Chicago, Illinois)
$15,000 in support of a month-long dance residency in Mongolia. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Chicago Opera Theater (Chicago, Illinois)
$200,000 in support of general operations (over five years). (2009)
Chicago Shakespeare Theater (Chicago, Illinois)
$375,000 in support of general operations (over five years). (2009)
Columbia College Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
$100,000 in general support of the Sherwood Conservatory of Music (over two years). (2009)
Deeply Rooted Productions (Chicago, Illinois)
$75,000 to support marketing and development plans (over two years). (2009)
Erie Neighborhood House (Chicago, Illinois)
$45,000 to fund a study tour that links Chicago's Mexican immigrants with communities in Guanajuato, Mexico. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
eta Creative Arts Foundation (Chicago, Illinois)
$62,000 to support technology upgrades. (2009)
Executive Service Corps of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
$100,000 to provide technical assistance for the Working Capital Loan Fund established in cooperation with ShoreBank (over two years). (2009)
Facets Multimedia (Chicago, Illinois)
$36,000 in support of the International Youth Delegates Program. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust (Oak Park, Illinois)
$250,000 in support of general operations (over five years). (2009)
Free Street Theater (Chicago, Illinois)
$25,000 to support the Cultural Embassies Project, in collaboration with the Makhampon Theatre Company in Thailand. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
House Development Corporation (Chicago, Illinois)
$50,000 in support of twenty Lawndale youth traveling to the University of Veracruz in Mexico to study race relations and improve cross-cultural understanding. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
$40,000 in support of artistic collaborations with Nederlands Dans Theater and Batsheva Dance Company. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Illinois Arts Alliance Foundation (Chicago, Illinois)
$30,000 in support of scholarships to the biennial conference, One State: Together in the Arts (over two years). (2009)
Illinois Humanities Council (Chicago, Illinois)
$250,000 in support of general operations (over five years). (2009)
International Music Foundation (Chicago, Illinois)
$75,000 in support of the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert series. (2009)
Jazz Institute of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
$60,000 in support of programming for the 2010 Chicago Jazz Festival. (2009)
Joffrey Ballet of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
$375,000 in support of general operations (over five years). (2009)
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, D.C.)
$100,000 in support of Capacity Building: Midwest (over two years). (2009)
Kalapriya Foundation (Chicago, Illinois)
$50,000 to support a marketing plan (over three years). (2009)
Korean American Resource & Cultural Center (Chicago, Illinois)
$75,000 in support of the development and expansion of the Culture Program (over three years). (2009)
Korean American Resource & Cultural Center (Chicago, Illinois)
$40,000 to support an exchange between cultural artists in Chicago and South Korea. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Kuumba Lynx (Chicago, Illinois)
$46,000 to support strategic planning with a focus on fundraising and development (over two years). (2009)
League of Chicago Theatres Foundation (Chicago, Illinois)
$40,000 in support of general operations. (2009)
Local Initiatives Support Corporation (Chicago, Illinois)
$50,000 to support an exchange between Chicago New Communities Program leaders and community development leaders in Russia. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Maat Production Association of Afrikan Centered Theatre (Chicago, Illinois)
$60,000 to support the New Play Development Program (over three years). (2009)
Morton Arboretum (Lisle, Illinois)
$500,000 in support of general operations (over five years). (2009)
Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
$60,000 to support technology upgrades and to hire marketing and development consultants. (2009)
National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago, Illinois)
$100,000 to support communications, marketing, and a new individual donor fundraising initiative (over two years). (2009)
National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago, Illinois)
$40,000 to support the International Roundtable Series as part of the Year of Mexico in Chicago. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Natya Dance Theatre (Chicago, Illinois)
$47,000 to support the development of marketing and fundraising capacities (over three years). (2009)
Options for Youth (Chicago, Illinois)
$50,000 to exchange leaders of the Illinois Subsequent Pregnancy Program and partner organizations in Guanajuato, Mexico to share approaches for reducing second pregnancies among adolescent mothers. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Prince Charitable Trusts (Chicago, Illinois)
$230,000 in support of capacity building grants for organizations supported by the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture. (2009)
Puerto Rican Arts Alliance (Chicago, Illinois)
$75,000 to support board development, technology upgrades and program development related to moving to a permanent facility in 2010 (over three years). (2009)
Quad Communities Development Corporation (Chicago, Illinois)
$50,000 to support an international study tour. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Ravinia Festival (Highland Park, Illinois)
$500,000 in support of general operations (over five years). (2009)
Redmoon Theater (Chicago, Illinois)
$45,000 to support an international collaboration with the Public Arts Initiative in Donegal, Ireland. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Richard H. Driehaus Foundation (Chicago, Illinois)
$90,000 in support of the MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture and the Small Theatre and Dance Group Program. (2009)
Ruth Page Foundation (Chicago, Illinois)
$200,000 in support of general operations (over two years). (2009)
Seldoms (Chicago, Illinois)
$25,000 in support of a reciprocal dance performance and education exchange with counterpart companies in Russia. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Silk Road Theatre Project (Chicago, Illinois)
$75,000 in support of Silk Road Sojourns, an audience engagement strategy (over two years). (2009)
Teatro Luna: Chicago's All Latina Theatre (Chicago, Illinois)
$47,500 to strengthen marketing and fundraising (over two years). (2009)
Theatre Communications Group (New York, New York)
$30,000 in support of scholarships that will allow twenty small and mid-sized arts organizations to attend the 2010 TCG conference in Chicago. (2009)
TUTA Theatre Chicago (Niles, Illinois)
$25,000 in support of the Balkan premiere of "Homebody/Kabul." (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
University of Chicago David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art (Chicago, Illinois)
$100,000 in support of general operations (over two years). (2009)
Urban Gateways (Chicago, Illinois)
$150,000 in support of general operations (over three years). (2009)
Urban Gateways (Chicago, Illinois)
$50,000 to support a two-way exchange with community arts educators and programs in Tanzania. (2009)
Grant awarded as part of the International Connections Fund.
Victory Gardens Theater (Chicago, Illinois)
$150,000 in support of general operations (over three years). (2009)
Media
MacArthur supports the production and distribution of news and documentary programs for television, radio, and the web that help inform the American public about important domestic and international current affairs and policy issues. More »
Number of Grants:
21
After Image Public Media (San Francisco, California)
$200,000 in support of"Higher Ground" , a documentary film about international climate change focused on the Republic of Maldives. (2009)
American Public Media (Saint Paul, Minnesota)
$500,000 in support of the business news program, Marketplace (over two years). (2009)
American University School of Communication (Washington, D.C.)
$600,000 to support the Investigative Reporting Workshop (over three years). (2009)
Arts Engine (New York, New York)
$50,000 in support of"Rose & Nangabire" , a documentary film about refugee resettlement and post-war reconciliation. (2009)
Association of Independents in Radio (Dorchester, Massachusetts)
$250,000 in support of Public MediaCraft, an effort to develop programming for radio and digital platforms (over two years). (2009)
Bay Area Video Coalition (San Francisco, California)
$43,000 to develop "Virtual Mine", an interactive, three-dimensional online game in connection with a documentary film about the economic and environmental trade-offs of coal mining. (2009)
Center for Investigative Reporting (Berkeley, California)
$600,000 in support of general operations (over three years). (2009)
Kelly+Yamamoto Productions (Greenbrae, California)
$150,000 in support of"Stories to Tell" , a documentary film about Chicago's Albany Park Theater Project and the role of art in the lives of immigrant and low-income youth. (2009)
Latino Public Broadcasting (Burbank, California)
$225,000 in support of"Voces" , a Latino documentary series on PBS (over three years). (2009)
Link Media (San Francisco, California)
$500,000 in support of general operations. (2009)
Openhood (Piedmont, California)
$50,000 to develop a multimedia project and documentary film about urban public hospitals and the uninsured patients being served by them. (2009)
ProPublica (New York, New York)
$500,000 in support of general operations (over two years). (2009)
StoryCorps (Brooklyn, New York)
$450,000 in support of general operations (over two years). (2009)
Sundance Institute (Beverly Hills, California)
$400,000 in support of the Documentary Film Program (over two years). (2009)
The Moth (New York, New York)
$200,000 in support of The Moth Radio Hour (over two years). (2009)
The Way We Get By (Brookline, Massachusetts)
$50,000 to develop an online interactive information resource in connection with the production of a documentary film, "The Way We Get By". (2009)
Tribeca Film Institute (New York, New York)
$450,000 in support of Reframe, a project to aggregate, digitize, curate and make available independent media content for online distribution (over two years). (2009)
Vital Pictures (Boston, Massachusetts)
$350,000 in support of a documentary film about the growing aging population (over two years). (2009)
WNET Channel 13 (New York, New York)
$250,000 in support of Wide Angle, a television series featuring documentary films on international affairs (over three years). (2009)
Woodlawn Avenue Productions (Chicago, Illinois)
$200,000 in support of a documentary film about medical interventions and community efforts to reduce maternal mortality in Nigeria. (2009)
WTTW Channel 11 Window to the World Communications (Chicago, Illinois)
$500,000 in support of the Chicago News Cooperative. (2009)
Other General Program Grants
Number of Grants:
50
Access to Justice (Apapa, Nigeria)
$350,000 to develop a public-interest law program. (2009)
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (New York, New York)
$1,800,000 in support of general operations (over three years). (2009)
American Civil Liberties Union Foundation (New York, New York)
$1,000,000 in support of general operations. (2009)
Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (San Francisco, California)
$115,000 in support of general operations (over three years). (2009)
Association of Graduates United States Military Academy (West Point, New York)
$400,000 in support of the NGO Fellowship Program (over two years). (2009)
Association of Reproductive Health Professionals (Washington, D.C.)
$140,000 to develop interactive maps of maternal health facilities in two countries. (2009)
Atomic Heritage Foundation (Washington, D.C.)
$100,000 to support the symposium, Nuclear Weapons: Revisiting Reykjavik. (2009)
Auricle Communications/WFMU (Jersey City, New Jersey)
$180,000 in support of the Free Music Archive (over two years). (2009)
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (Chicago, Illinois)
$75,000 in support of a business plan to increase earned revenue from digital publishing. (2009)
Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago)
$350,000 to enhance long-term financial and technical sustainability and communications effectiveness. (2009)
Center for Effective Philanthropy (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
$75,000 to support research on the philanthropic sector (over three years). (2009)
Center for Neighborhood Technology (Chicago, Illinois)
$650,000 to upgrade technology hardware and analytic software, improve communications capacity, expand resource development, and establish a reserve fund. (2009)
Centre for Independent Social Research (St. Petersburg, Russia)
$350,000 to develop a new scholarly journal, associated web portal, and other activities aimed at strengthening the field of sociology in Russia. (2009)
Chicago Community Foundation (Chicago, Illinois)
$250,000 in support of activities to advance an accurate Census 2010 count in the Chicago metropolitan area. (2009)
Chicago Community Loan Fund (Chicago, Illinois)
$500,000 to support institutional strengthening and growth. (2009)
Chicago Community Trust (Chicago, Illinois)
$100,000 in support of the Community News Matters initiative, a new grantmaking program to promote innovation in the gathering and dissemination of local news and community information in the Chicago region. (2009)
Collier Spay Neuter Clinic (Naples, Florida)
$50,000 to start a new facility to provide affordable, high quality, pet population control services in southwestern Florida. (2009)
Documentation Center of Cambodia (Phnom Penh, Cambodia)
$120,000 to support a documentary film about the impact of Cambodia's rapid development on its ecosystems and people. (2009)
Duke University, Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy Center for Strategic Philanthropy and Civil Society (Durham, North Carolina)
$60,000 to research the effect of technology on philanthropy. (2009)
Federation of American Scientists (Washington, D.C.)
$25,000 to create a management plan for the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies. (2009)
Five Star Films (Cabin John, Maryland)
$25,000 to support "Breaking the Rules," a documentary film about the role of White South Africans in the struggle against apartheid. (2009)
Foundation Center (New York, New York)
$150,000 to support a new online philanthropy mapping tool. (2009)
Georgia Tech Research Corporation (Atlanta, Georgia)
$220,000 in support of research and a technical support program to advance the use of digital technologies by civil society organizations in Nigeria (over 18 months). (2009)
Goldstone, Richard (New York, New York)
$100,000 for the MacArthur International Justice Award. (2009)
Harvard Law School Berkman Center for Internet and Society (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
$960,000 to study the impact of the internet on Russia (over two years). (2009)
Human Rights Watch (New York, New York)
$175,000 to study government efforts to restrain civil society and free expression in Russia. (2009)
Independent Sector (Washington, D.C.)
$450,000 in support of general operations (over three years). (2009)
Institute of International Education (New York, New York)
$100,000 to support the selection of and travel for those leaders who represent organizations awarded the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. (2009)
International Center for Journalists (Washington, D.C.)
$250,000 to establish the India International Journalism Institute. (2009)
Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Education Fund (Washington, D.C.)
$250,000 to advance an accurate count in Census 2010. (2009)
Mahila SEWA Trust (Ahmedabad, India)
$650,000 to scale up maternal health and community health insurance programs to reduce maternal mortality in India. (2009)
Millennium Park (Chicago, Illinois)
$50,000 in support of general operations (over five years). (2009)
Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago, Illinois)
$250,000 in support of the Science Chicago website (over two years). (2009)
National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (Washington, D.C.)
$75,000 to support work promoting best philanthropic practices (over three years). (2009)
National Geographic Society (Washington, D.C.)
$50,000 to support the 2009 BioBlitz, to be held at the Indiana Dunes National Seashore. (2009)
National Housing Conference (Washington, D.C.)
$650,000 to make strategic investments in technology infrastructure, business planning, and new facilities. (2009)
Neighborhood Reinvestment (Washington, D.C.)
$100,000 to develop the Data Warehouse, an online database of information about affordable housing finances and operations. (2009)
Online Computer Library Center (Dublin, Ohio)
$350,000 to develop Reference Extract, an online search utility for finding reliable and accurate information on the Web. (2009)
Philanthropy Roundtable (Washington, D.C.)
$75,000 in support of general operations (over three years). (2009)
Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, D.C.)
$100,000 to support the design and construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. (2009)
Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History (Washington, D.C.)
$10,000,000 to support the Encyclopedia of Life (over three years). (2009)
TechSoup Global (San Francisco, California)
$150,000 to fund a centralized repository of information on nonprofit organizations based outside the U.S. to support the sharing of equivalency determinations among U.S. grantmaking organizations (over two years). (2009)
University of Illinois at Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
$10,000 to support the annual Richard J. Daley Urban Forum. (2009)
University of London School of Oriental and African Studies Centre for Southeast Asian Studies (London, United Kingdom)
$20,000 to study and record Shan Buddhist culture in Thailand and to fund a conference to disseminate the findings. (2009)
University of Winnipeg (Winnipeg, Canada)
$30,000 to support community-based land planning that leads to the nomination of Pimachiowin Aki in Central Canada for recognition as a World Heritage Site. (2009)
Ushahidi (Orlando, Florida)
$200,000 to support the web-based mapping and information tool, Ushahidi. (2009)
Vermont Law School (South Royalton, Vermont)
$100,000 to plan and launch of The New Economy Network (over two years). (2009)
WNET Channel 13 (New York, New York)
$100,000 in support of "Faces of America", a documentary series on race, ethnicity, ancestry, and identity in the United States produced and written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2009)
WNET Channel 13 (New York, New York)
$50,000 in support of "The Open Mind." (2009)
Women of the Don Region (Novocherkask, Russia)
$350,000 to purchase office space. (2009)