[Dixielandjazz] $101 MILLION to PRINCETON UNIVERSITY FOR "CREATIVE & PERFORMING ARTS".

[Steve barbone]

There seems to be renewed commitment to the "Arts" today, through donations.
At least here in the Eastern USA. This article is but one example.

BTW, Princeton University provides quite a few OKOM gigs each year for bands
from New York to Washington DC. Especially at Alumni Reunion Week. And the
great cornetist/trumpeter Ed Polcer is a Princeton Alumnus. I will never
forget a gig there with him, where he taught us the Princeton Fight Song on
the spot and we played a damn good Dixieland rendition of it, in a
magnificent two level theater.

Moral of the story? If Government won't do it, lets do it ourselves by
putting our money and/or talent where our mouths are.

Article is snipped (excerpted) for brevity. But note the last sentence the
University President said about the arts; "We're not going to force feed
it," she said, "But we're going to make it hard to avoid."

Perhaps, in this era of positive signals about "The Arts", we might go forth
and do likewise with OUR music?

Cheers,
Steve


Princeton to Receive Record Gift for the Arts

NY TIMES  By ROBIN POGREBIN - January 21, 2006

Peter B. Lewis, the Cleveland philanthropist known for his tough standards,
is giving his alma mater, Princeton University, $101 million to expand its
creative and performing arts activities, including the creation of an
artists-in-residence program. The gift, the largest in the school's history,
is to be announced today.

Mr. Lewis, . . . called the arts "an important part of life I didn't know
when I was at Princeton and didn't know when I was a kid." . .  . SNIP TO

"This will have a transformational effect on Princeton," said Shirley M.
Tilghman, the president of the university. "It will bring the creative and
performing arts into real focus in a way they haven't been in the history of
the university." . . .SNIP TO

Princeton hopes to capitalize on the university's proximity to New York and
Philadelphia to attract working artists. The center will also expand the
campus's physical space for art, possibly providing a new gallery and
additional theater space. . . SNIP TO

The arts emerged as an area in need of redress. In talking to students and
faculty members, Ms. Tilghman heard of student dance groups having to move
all the chairs out of a classroom to create rehearsal space;  . . . and of
music students who carried their instruments all over campus in rain and
snow because there was no storage area.

"It became clear to me that this was one area in which Princeton was just
simply underperforming," she said. . . SNIP TO

"Part of this initiative is to visibly commit Princeton to expanding these
programs in the arts." . . . SNIP TO

While the arts on campus will intensify, students will not be required to
participate. But Ms. Tilghman said she hoped students would experience more,
if only as members of an audience. "We're not going to force feed it," she
said. "But we're going to make it hard to avoid."