In Friday’s (12/5) New York Times, Michael Cooper writes that the Woodruff Arts Center, parent organization of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, “announced Friday that it had received a record $38 million grant. The grant, from the Woodruff Foundation, is being described as the lead gift in a new fund-raising campaign for the arts center, which also includes the High Museum of Art and the Alliance Theater. It will include $25 million in matching funds for the center’s endowment, and $13 million to make capital improvements, beginning with a renovation of the Alliance Theater. Some of the endowment matching funds—$8 million—will go toward what is being called the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Players’ Endowment Fund, which will be used to endow seats for musicians and help the orchestra rebuild and reach its contractually mandated size…. In 2012 the orchestra shrank to 88 regular positions from 95. And its new contract will allow it to remain at 77 players this year, where it fell due to attrition, and give it four years to grow back to 88. The Woodruff Foundation and the Woodruff Arts Center, which are separate entities, are both named for Robert W. Woodruff, the Coca-Cola Company executive and philanthropist, who died in 1985.”
Posted December 8, 2014
