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After several years of dwindling state funding, area arts groups were hit particularly hard this year. Funding cuts from the Virginia Commission for the Arts reached nearly 50 percent for many cultural organizations. To help the arts groups survive and find new ways to thrive. The Norfolk Foundation introduced the ArtsMatch program in September.

Through December 31 the Foundation's new ArtsMatch program will provide $1 for every $2 eight participating arts organizations raise in new or increased contributions between September 1 and December 31 of this year. The total amount of matching funds available from the Foundation is $200,000, which can be used for operating support of existing programs.

"The arts are a critical ingredient to the quality of life we enjoy," says Angelica D. Light, Norfolk Foundation president. "Due to state budget shortfalls, in the past year these eight key organizations have lost more than $275,000 in operating support from the Virginia Commission for the Arts. The ArtsMatch program is designed to bridge this financial gap by helping these groups attract new and increased local support for their operating expenses."

Organizations eligible for matching funds are the Chrysler Museum of Art, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, Virginia Arts Festival, Virginia Ballet Theatre, Virginia Opera, Virginia Stage Company, Virginia Symphony and Young Audiences of Virginia. These groups were selected because "any decrease in programming or the loss of one of these organizations would leave a hole in our region's cultural fabric," Light says. To be included in the challenge grant, gifts should be made directly to the arts groups between September 1 and December 31.

The matching grant program was inspired one of the Foundation's donors whose donor advised fund at the Foundation recently provided matching grants for the Virginia Symphony. From last November until this May the symphony raised $200,000 in new or increased funds that were matched by $100,000 from the donor's fund. The ArtsMatch funds will come from the Foundation's unrestricted funds, started by various donors over the years.

The availability of matching grants "got the attention of our smaller donors and people who had never given to us before," says Virginia Thumm, director of development for the Virginia Symphony. "For people on the edge of donating, knowing their gifts would be matched helped them make the decision to give." More than 1,300 people contributed to the symphony's matching grant program - nearly half of them new donors.

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More information about ArtsMatch is available at www.norfolkfoundation.org or by directly contacting any of the eight participating arts groups.

Back to Fall 2003 Newsletter Index