Shubert Foundation Awards Record $37.6M In Grants To Non-Profit Arts, $2M For HBCU Scholarships

deadline.com:

The Shubert Foundation has awarded a record $37.6 million in unrestricted grants to not-for-profit theaters, dance companies, academic theater training programs, and related service agencies, and in addition has made two $1 million gifts to create endowed scholarships for theater students at Spelman College and Morehouse College, two of the most prominent HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities).The grants and gifts were announced by the Foundation today.

The $37.6 million figure tops last year’s record-setting $32.1 million by $5.5 million.“We are delighted to increase both our funding and the number of our grantees this year,” said Diana Phillips, President of The Shubert Foundation, in a statement. “While it has been exciting to see life return to the performing arts, Covid has dealt a terrible blow and there remains enormous need everywhere.”Established in 1945 by theater impresarios Lee and J.J.

Shubert to honor their brother Sam, the Foundation today is the nation’s largest funder of unrestricted aid for not-for-profit theater and dance companies.

Since the establishment of the Foundation’s grants program in 1977, the organization has awarded more than $575 million.According to Phillips, the Foundation sought to broaden access and eliminate barriers to the grants this year, and “welcomed smaller budgeted first-time applicants without requiring audited financial statements.” She said that 18 of the 50 new grant recipients were added to the Foundation’s roster because of this change.Chairman Robert E.