It was a hard road to hoe this year but the
Fine Arts Fund Campaign, led by Macy's, Inc. Chief Financial Officer and Fine Arts Fund Campaign General Chair, Karen Hoguet, finished its 2009 campaign with a combined total of $11 million from community donations as well as $1.1 million in special initiative funding from the Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation.
The money raised secures Cincinnati's Fine Arts Fund as the nation's largest, and oldest, combined community campaign for the arts.
The campaign's goal of $12 million was ambitious given the state of the current economy, but as President and CEO for the Fine Arts Fund, Mary McCullough-Hudson remarked at the finale ceremony, "We owe it to our arts institutions to set the bar high."
Community contributions to the annual Fine Arts Fund campaign, which provides funds for day-to-day expenses of arts organizations, totaled 92 percent of the $12 million campaign goal established earlier this year. "This is a significant accomplishment," noted Mark Serrianne, Chair of the Fine Arts Fund Board of Trustees. "We could have lowered our sights in this economy, but we didn't want to do that knowing how this community feels about the arts and how important these funds are to our community."
The additional $1.1 million raised during the campaign came from the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr./U.S. Bank Foundation and will provide funding for new initiatives in arts education, regional and neighborhood art centers, and diverse arts offerings through the Arts & Culture Partnership of the Fine Arts Fund. "The Haile Foundation contribution means that we can also focus on efforts designed to ensure a strong future for this region through arts and culture," said Mr. Serrianne.
Despite the uncertainty of the economy, the region's support of its arts institutions sends a powerful message about perceived value of the arts and the role they play in our community. Support for the campaign came from a wide range of individuals, companies, and foundations with 80 percent of gifts totaling less than $150. "No other community in America can match our record for such broad-based support for the arts," says Hoguet.
The money raised by the campaign will go towards day-to-day expenses of arts organizations throughout the region which rely on contributed income to survive.
The end of the campaign marks another journey in the organization's new priorities adopted by the Fine Arts Fund board as shared objectives of the Fund and its Arts & Culture Partnership. This new role for the organization includes:
- engaging the community and building public will,
- achieving educational excellence in schools through the arts,
- sustaining and strengthening a healthy arts and culture sector, and
- serving as a champion and catalyst for the sector.
Writer: Jeff Syroney
Source: Fine Arts Fund
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