Art is essential: it helps us reflect on what it means to be human and connect with each other across differences.
For 25 years, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) has worked to expand access to world-class arts initiatives and organizations in 35 countries. More than 1,100 grants totaling $1.1 billion awarded to arts organizations prioritized accessibility, opened doors to early-career arts and culture workers, shared Greece’s rich artistic history across the world and helped cultural institutions bring incredible works to audiences and reach new audiences. Through the work of SNF partners, art sparks curiosity about our world and how it works, helps people and communities find their voices, and gives us a language to address the major challenges we face together.
Culture, by definition, is meant to be shared, and NSF grants have helped cultural institutions reach and serve a wide range of audiences, from children to seniors, military personnel to new mothers. The grants provided free access to leading cultural institutions and sought to ensure that people of all abilities and in all life situations had the opportunity to create, share and experience art. Among other things, SNF helped support:
- BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music), the Benaki museum, the Brooklyn Museum, The Frick Collection, The Guggenheim, Signature Theater Companyand others to provide free and discounted access to premium collections of works and performances
- THE Cultural Pass initiative to provide free access to dozens of cultural institutions to New York City library cardholders
- Carnegie HallI pairing teaching musicians with new parents in homeless shelters, correctional facilities, refugee camps, foster homes and elsewhere to write original lullabies for their children
- The Barbican Center supporting the National Open Youth Orchestra for musicians with and without disabilities
- THE Whitney Museum of American Art providing education programs to youth, community, access and seniors
- Artésens in producing traveling exhibitions of seminal works of art from around the world designed for sighted people and people with visual impairments
- Seveneleven Theater Company to reach older people with interactive social programs through thāllo program
- War theater productions engaging diverse audiences, from the military to medical first responders, in discussions of difficult but pressing issues based on readings of ancient Greek plays and other texts
- Streetwise Opera in strengthening and connecting artistic projects of people who have experienced homelessness
- Philadelphia Mural Arts using art to support community wellbeing, particularly for people facing mental health issues
- THE Learn through art Guggenheim program to place teaching artists in New York City public schools
- We the curious creating an exhibition fueled by the curiosity of ordinary Bristolians that merges art and science
- Clean break providing theater opportunities to women across the UK who have experienced the criminal justice system
Making the arts and culture sector inclusive and open to all means providing early career arts and culture workers with opportunities to develop their skills, perform on stage, produce and progress in their practice. The SNF argued:
- The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) by offering internships to professionals at the start of their careers in museum departments
- The Courtauld Art Institute providing scholarships to provide access to transformational higher education in the arts for over 20 years through the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Scholarship Fund
- The warehouse giving early-career artists in the fields of performance, visual arts or popular culture media the chance to showcase their work in New York
- Artists from the United States providing emergency grants to meet the essential needs of individual artists in the United States affected by the pandemic
- WORKS OF ART by offering hundreds of artists a paid scholarship to dedicate to their artistic practice, network and grow through programming
- THE Royal College of Arts providing funding to doctoral students pursuing research at the intersection of science and the arts through the SNF STEAM Research Fund
- Megaro Youth Symphony Orchestra by offering young people from northern Greece the opportunity to pursue a professional career in music
- Schoolchildren by organizing the Schoolwave Festival to give student groups in Greece the opportunity to perform in professional conditions
- All music schools in Greece in improving musical teaching and practice through the provision of musical instruments to students
SNF’s roots are in Greece, and one facet of the Foundation’s mission is to share Greek culture, art and heritage with people around the world. The SNF argued:
The SNF also supports leading cultural institutions in developing pioneering new approaches to engaging audiences, making connections across borders and disciplines, and making exceptional works of art available to the public. The Foundation supported:
- Lincoln Center reimagining and reactivating public space for a new era through the Stavros Niarchos-Lincoln Center Foundation’s Agora initiative
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art bringing its collections to life through performances by artists working in various disciplines as part of MetLiveArts
- THE National Library of France in the restoration of the Salon Louis XV, which houses a collection of antiquities, notably from ancient Greece
- THE Science Museum by arousing the curiosity of visitors through revamped and redesigned galleries
- THE Greek National Gallery by making more than double the number of objects in its collection accessible to the public
- Beyeler Foundation by organizing major exhibitions of works by Picasso and Gauguin
- THE Arab World Institute by offering the possibility of virtually visiting Mosul in Iraq, Aleppo and Palmyra in Syria and Leptis Magna in Libya
- THE Greek National Opera launching from a state-of-the-art home at SNFCC in Athens to reach audiences around the world
- The National Museum of Contemporary Art in Greece to open its doors and reach its full potential by sharing art with the public
- The Benaki Museum in the restoration of the Patrick and Joan Leigh Fermor House to serve as a center for visiting scholars and artists
THE Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in Athens, created with the largest SNF grant to date and awarded to the people of Greece in 2017, brings to life a vision for how people from all backgrounds can enjoy theatrical performances, literature, visual arts, music, cultural and sporting activities, and what’s more, all in a public space that they can really make their own. Every summer, the SNFCC vibrates with SNF Nostosa free and open annual celebration of the Foundation featuring thought-provoking artwork, dazzling performances and electrifying music.
This list includes only a few of the thousand grants awarded by the SNF in the field of art and culture. Explore more.