In recognition of the arts' contribution to the health, vitality and development of our communities, MetLife Foundation and MetLife provide grants to a variety of cultural organizations throughout the country. Support is emphasized for projects with large and diverse audiences that help promote greater understanding among different cultures. In addition, grants are made for arts education initiatives that contribute to the development of young people.
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| ARTS EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT |
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| The arts contribute to the creative and overall development of young people. Arts education programs play a vital role in developing future audiences and building healthy communities. Since 1990, MetLife and MetLife Foundation have contributed over $35 million to help ensure that children have the opportunity to make the arts part of their lives. Through collaboration with national and regional organizations, grants are made to support sustained in-school arts education programs benefiting public school students and after-school youth art initiatives. Partnerships between arts groups and public schools and youth-serving organizations are emphasized. Each year, over 1 million children participate in arts activities supported by the Foundation. Among the current grantees are Young Audiences, VSA arts, National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, Studio in a School and ArtsConnection. |
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Creating Connections Though Dance and Music
MetLife Community Connections, a component of the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, and MetLife Creative Connections, a program of Meet the Composer, provide opportunities for dance companies/choreographers and composers/musicians to participate in audience and community engagement activities, including workshops, master classes, residencies, collaborations with local schools and more. For more information about these MetLife Foundation programs, visit the Web sites of NEFA and Meet the Composer.
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MetLife/Theatre Communications Group A-ha! Program
A program for member theaters of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), A-ha! supports creative thinking and action in two ways: Think It grants give theater professionals the time and space for research and development; Do It grants support the implementation and testing of new ideas. For more information, visit TCG's Web site.
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| AWARDS FOR CULTURAL EXCELLENCE |
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| To encourage innovation and promote best practices in cultural programming, MetLife Foundation sponsors several national cultural awards programs, including: |
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The MetLife Foundation and Association of Children’s Museums Promising Practices Award recognizes program excellence at children's museums. In 2008, the program commemorated its tenth anniversary with a monograph titled "Profiles of Promising Practices." The publication highlights all the winning projects during the first decade of the Award program. (For more information on the program, please visit ACM’s Web site .) |
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The MetLife Awards for Excellence in Community Engagement is offered in a partnership with the American Symphony Orchestra League to honor outstanding work in the emerging field of community engagement and highlight programs that can serve as models for other orchestras of all sizes. Past winners include Santa Rosa Symphony (CA), Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra and New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. (For more information on the program, visit ASOL’s Web site)
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| The Nuestras Voces (Our Voices) Playwriting Competition, offered through the Repertorio Espanol , encourages upcoming playwrights and the development of new plays, in either Spanish or English, which focus on the Hispanic experience in the United States. The Grand Prize winning play receives mainstage performances around the country, and other winners receive staged readings. |
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| PUBLIC BROADCASTING |
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MetLife is proud to be the lead corporate sponsor of Live From Lincoln Center. The Emmy and Peabody Award-winning series, which features the finest in performing arts, is seen on about 300 PBS stations in all 50 states. MetLife was one of the original funders of the Lincoln Center in the 1950s, and MetLife and the Foundation have continued to lend support to the Center and a number of its constituents throughout the years. For information on future broadcasts, check Live From Lincoln Center’s Web site and your local listings for program time and station in your area.
MetLife Foundation is the sponsor of the New York Philharmonic's radio broadcasts on 265 radio stations around the country as well as XM Satellite Radio's XM Classics channel. Check the Philharmonic's Web site for more information about programs, times and stations. The Foundation also sponsors the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's broadcasts on NPR's Performance Today and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's radio broadcasts.
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| TRAVELING ARTS PROGRAM |
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| To making the arts accessible to wide and diverse audiences, the Traveling Arts Program supports national tours of exhibits and performing arts groups. MetLife Foundation-sponsored traveling exhibits and performance companies visit over 200 cities across the country annually. |
Traveling Exhibitions
MetLife Foundation provides grants to support traveling exhibitions to help museums bring quality exhibits to broader audiences. These exhibits share cultural treasures from different parts of the country and help bring the arts to communities that otherwise might not have the opportunity to enjoy them.
The following are some of the traveling exhibitions currently supported by the Foundation.
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Moore in America: Monumental Sculpture at The New York Botanical Garden
MetLife Foundation is the sponsor of Moore in America, the largest single outdoor exhibition of Henry Moore's sculpture ever presented in Amerca. Positioned throughout the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, the exhibit is on view trhough November 2, 2008.
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Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids
MetLife Foundation is the sponsor of Mythic Creatures, which traces the cultural and natural history roots of some of the world's most enduring mythological creatures for the first time. Legendary beasts of land, sea and air, such as dragons, griffins, mermaids, sea serpents and unicorns, are highlighted in this major exhibition, which was organized by the American Museum of Natural History in New York. After stops in New York and Chicago's Field Museum, the exhibit will be on view at Boston's Museum of Science starting October 26, 2008.
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Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities
MetLife Foundation is the Lead National Sponsor of the traveling exhibition, Georgia O’Keeffe and Ansel Adams: Natural Affinities. This exhibition is the first exploration of these artists together and of the significance of their achievements in capturing the reality and essence of the world around them. Originating at the Georgia O’Keefe Museum in Santa Fe, the exhibit will travel to The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, DC; the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
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Memory
Developed by The Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA, the traveling exhibit Memory explores mysterious corners of the human brain. Blending neuroscience with fun-filled and challenging games to flex a guest's mental muscles, Memory is guaranteed to be ... memorable! The exhibition is expected to travel to 20 cities in the US. |
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Let Your Motto Be Resistance
Let Your Motto Be Resistance: African American Portraiture from 1865 to the Present is the introductory exhibit of the Smithsonian Institution's newest museum, the future National Museum of African American History and Culture. The exhibit is traveling to 10 venues through 2010.
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Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series
National tour of an exhibition featuring works from Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series from the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC. The series depicts African Americans' flight from the rural South to the industrial cities of the North from 1916 to 1930.
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| NATIONAL PERFORMANCE TOURS |
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| In order to increase accessibility to the arts and encourage artistic excellence, MetLife Foundation sponsors several performing arts tours each year. Tour sponsorship enables dance and theater companies to share their unique styles and repertories with communities throughout the country, while helping build diverse and sustained audiences for the individual companies and the arts. |
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Ailey II
Founded in 1974, Ailey II is the official company-in-residence of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Center. Formerly known as the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, Ailey II visits over 30 cities each year, reaching tens of thousands of people annually through its diverse programs. Under the artistic direction of former Ailey dancer Sylvia Waters, Ailey II provides emerging choreographers and young dancers with an extensive New York and national audience.
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Ballet Hispanico
Ballet Hispanico, the preeminent Hispanic-American dance company, blends classical dance and Hispanic culture. Its works have been seen by over 1.5 million people in 41 states, Europe, South American and the Caribbean. The company has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and has won several awards for its contributions to the arts. |
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Dancing Wheels
Dancing Wheels was founded by Mary Verdi-Fletcher, who was born with spina bifida but dreamed of becoming a dancer. She not only fulfilled that dream, she made it possible for others to follow in her path. Dancing Wheels sends a powerful message by combining dancers in wheel chairs with unimpaired dancers and featuring them in dramatic choreography. A MetLife Foundation Access to the Arts grant has helped the company visit dozens of cities across the country.
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H.T. Chen and Dancers Company
An innovative modern dance company, H.T. Chen & Dancers has created a uniquely Asian-American style of dance. The company's dynamic technique infuses Western modern dance with the strength and beauty of Asian aesthetics.
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Mark Morris Dance Group
Founded by the internationally acclaimed choreographer Mark Morris in 1980, the Mark Morris Dance Group (MMDG) has grown to a company of 18 dancers that presents an average of 90 shows a year in 35 cities worldwide as well as workshops and educational outreach activities. MMDG is the only modern dance company in the country to feature live music at every performance. |
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Paul Taylor Dance Company
The Paul Taylor Dance Company is one of the leading modern dance groups in the United States. The company has performed for audiences around the world for over 40 years in over 400 cities in more than 60 nations and has been featured on national television. Paul Taylor has won numerous awards, including the National Medal of Arts (1993), three Guggenheim Fellowships and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Recently, the company completed a 50-state tour in celebration of its fiftieth anniversary. MetLife Foundation is the national sponsor of the Paul Taylor Dance Company and its junior company, Taylor 2. |
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Ping Chong and Company
Ping Chong and Company, originally the Fiji Theatre Company, was founded in 1975 by Ping Chong who is recognized as one of the country’s most significant Asian-American artists. Today, the company creates innovative works of theater and art for multi-cultural audiences in New York and throughout the world. MetLife supports Ping Chong's Undesirable Elements, an ongoing series of community-specific oral history theater works by theater director Ping Chong examining the lives of people born in one culture but currently living in another, either by choice or by circumstance. |
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| ACCESS TO THE ARTS |
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| Introduced in 2000, this initiative aims to encourage organizations to make the arts more inclusive and accessible for the special needs community by funding innovative programs. The Access to the Arts initiative awards grants each year to various cultural organizations that have demonstrated leadership and innovation in arts access. Organizations that have received support for accessibility-related projects include The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, VSA arts in Washington, DC, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, The National Theatre of the Deaf in Hartford, CT, Dancing Wheels in Cleveland, OH, and National Assembly of State Arts Agencies in Washington, DC. |
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| MUSEUM INITIATIVES New Museum and Community Connections RFP |
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Supporting and increasing educational opportunities for people of all ages is a key emphasis for MetLife Foundation. Museums play an important role in helping people experience and understand our world and are valuable resources for schools and communities. Recognizing the important contributions and educational value of museums, MetLife Foundation has awarded grants totaling over $25 million in recent years to museums across the country.
MetLife Foundation Museum and Community Connections
To encourage art museums to reach out to large numbers of people of all ages and backgrounds through imaginative programs and/or exhibits that help us understand and appreciate each other, MetLife Foundation created the Museum and Community Connections initiative. The program awarded grants totaling $1 million to 16 art museums in central states in 2008. For more information, see the following press release; for information on 2007 grants, see the following press release.
Smithsonian SITES Community Grants Program
This program was created to deepen connections between host venues of exhibitions organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibitions (SITES) and their communities by encouraging exhibitors to engage their local audiences in new and exciting ways while creating broader access to SITES exhibitions. Eligible SITES exhibitors may apply for support for public, educational programming produced in conjunction with a SITES exhibit. Exhibitors may choose to enhance current program offerings or to create a new program especially suited to the topic of the exhibition. Program guidelines can be found on SITES’ Web site.
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