$20 MILLION - GOOD NEWS FOR THE ARTS

In one of the largest such gifts ever to the Los Angeles Music Center or any of its resident companies, Los Angeles philanthropist Glorya Kaufman donated $20 million to the Dance at the Music Center program, which was recently reported by The Los Angeles Times.

“It’s a record -- and, as far as we know, the largest gift to support dance ever in America,” Music Center President Stephen D. Rountree said.

She is the widow of Donald Bruce Kaufman, founder with Eli Broad of the home construction and financing firm Kaufman & Broad, now KB Homes.

“We have a terrible economy, and what happens first is that all the arts disappear,” Kaufman told The Times. “And to me, dance is one of the most important that there is.”

Kaufman added that she hoped the endowment would generate funds to expand the dance series’ educational programs funded by the Glorya Kaufman Dance Foundation.

For example, Russian companies that want to tour are planning two and three years out, and we haven’t had the ability to commit to them because we didn’t know about the funding. Now we have the funding to bring companies to Los Angeles that might have come to New York, but no one on the West Coast could have afforded to bring them here.

Kaufman’s grant is a catalyst for allowing the dance program to expand its educational and audience development efforts. Included on her list are technological experiments in live blogging -- perhaps inviting audience members backstage to talk with artists or production staff -- or group discussions at intermission via hand-held devices.

I think this is a great example of using a gift to make future plan to expand the current education and touring programs as well as a way to insure future success using technology! It's very encouraging in this rocky time to know that major gift patrons are still out there.