PRESS RELEASES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: December 19, 2006
Contact: Betsy Boggia, (617) 364-7300

THE BOSTON FOUNDATION AND BOSTON AFTER SCHOOL AND BEYOND
AWARD GRANTS TO THE HYDE PARK ARTS INITIATIVE

The Hyde Park Arts Initiative is pleased to announce it has been awarded $25,000 by The Boston Foundation. 

Funds from this grant will be used to support the efforts of HPAI to promote the arts in Hyde Park. This includes sponsoring the annual Artscene Festival, supporting Hyde Park Open Studios, printing and distributing a calendar of local arts events throughout the community, partnering with business to support the arts, and efforts to expand the visibility of various art and cultural institutions in Hyde Park.

“The Hyde Park Arts Initiative has been able to accomplish so much in the last two years,” says HPAI Chair, Osmani Rodriguez. “The grant from the Boston Foundation will give us additional resources to expand on that success, enhance our existing programs, and create more opportunities for artists and the community to come together.”

In addition, Boston After School and Beyond has awarded HPAI $25,000 to support after school arts classes at the Greenwood Elementary School, add performing art classes to the ShOut! after school tutoring classes sponsored by the Hyde Park Presbyterian Church, and create a strategic long range plan for the arts in Hyde Park, including the best use of existing space for the arts and business enhancement of the community.

The Hyde Park Arts Initiative was founded in 2004 by a group of local artists and businesses interested increasing the visibility of the arts, and using the arts as an economic catalyst for the downtown area.  Since then, three art events have been sponsored annually with over 1200 people participating.  HPAI is run by a volunteer group of Partners including Artists-at-Large, Hyde Park Main Streets, The Riverside Theatre, Hyde Park Open Studios, the Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation, the Hyde Park Arts Association, the Hyde Park Branch Library and Friends of the Hyde Park Library, the Hyde Park YMCA, the Dance Academy and the O’Dwyer School of Irish Dance, among others.  For more information about HPAI visit www.hydeparkartsinitiative.org or call 617-364-7300.

The Boston Foundation, one of the nation’s oldest and largest community foundations, has an endowment of close to $686 million.  Last year, the Foundation made grants of $63 million to non-profit organizations and received gifts of $53 million.  The Boston Foundation is made up of 850 separate charitable funds, which have been established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes.  The Foundation also serves as a civic leader, convener, and sponsor of special initiatives designed to build community.  For more information about The Boston Foundation and its grant making, visit www.tbf.org or call 617-338-1700. 

Boston After School & Beyond (Boston Beyond) was formed in 2004 as the successor to Boston's After-School for All Partnership and the Boston 2:00-to-6:00 After-School Initiative. Boston Beyond is a public/private partnership to organize the many networks and organizations that make up the Out-of-School Time (OST) field into a coherent system with the goal of expanding access to high-quality programming for all of Boston's families.
In the spring of 2003, Boston’s After-School for All Partnership launched a year-long planning process, funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to solicit input from more than 85 stakeholders and develop a plan for strengthening Boston’s system of out-of-school time programs. Boston After School & Beyond is a direct result of the process, providing broad-based civic leadership and services to expand, strengthen, and sustain Boston’s system of out-of-school time programs, ensuring high-quality opportunities for all of Boston’s children and youth.  For more information visit www.bostonbeyond.org or call 617-345-5322.

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