The Shubert Foundation Awards a Record $30 Million to 533 Performing Arts Organizations Across the US

NEW YORK -- The Shubert Foundation has awarded a record total of $30 million to 533 not-for-profit performing arts organizations across the United States. This marks the 38th consecutive year that the Foundation has increased its giving. 

“This year we are delighted to be offering support to 533 performing arts organizations all around the country,” stated Shubert Foundation President, Michael I. Sovern. “Our longstanding practice of providing help in the form of general operating support remains unchanged. We are convinced that talented artists and administrators are best able to decide how to use the funds we grant.”

The Shubert Foundation is the nation’s largest funder dedicated to unrestricted funding of not-for-profit theatres, dance companies, professional theatre training programs and related service agencies.

Ranging from $10,000 to $325,000, the grants benefit a broad spectrum of arts organizations, from large to small, covering a wide range of locations, from urban to rural. The Shubert Foundation is especially interested in providing support to professional resident theatre and dance companies that develop and produce new American work.

“Every organization receiving a 2018 Foundation grant has demonstrated an extraordinary commitment to the performing arts,” said Foundation Chairman, Philip J. Smith. “We want to help lift some of the financial burden so that the companies we support are able to focus on producing thought-provoking, relevant work for the widest possible audience.”

Four years ago, the Foundation established the Shubert Scholars Program. Grants go to seven leading colleges and universities. The funds are dedicated to providing scholarship assistance to students in graduate degree programs in theatre arts. Preparing the next generation of theatre artists is a central goal of the Foundation.

The Shubert Foundation, Inc., was established in 1945 by Lee and J.J. Shubert, in memory of their brother Sam. Since the establishment of the Shubert Foundation grants program in 1977, over $443 million has been awarded to not-for-profit arts organizations throughout the United States. 

The Foundation continues its commitment to the Shubert Archive. Created by the Foundation in 1976, the Archive contains more than a century’s worth of production designs, scripts, sheet music, publicity materials, photographs, correspondence, business records and architectural plans. The collection, which has grown substantially over the years and continues to expand, is available to researchers, writers, historians and theatre professionals.