Prudential Foundation Pledges $10M to NJPAC

The Newark-based New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), which has spearheaded that city's economic and cultural revitalization since its opening in 1997, has received the largest single corporate contribution in its history—$10 million from the Prudential Foundation.

And on the left coast, the Annenberg Foundation has announced a pledge of $15 million to build a cultural center in Beverly Hills.

At a time when large corporate or foundation gifts are increasingly hard to come by, the Prudential donation is large and has been earmarked for two purposes. Thirty percent, or $3 million, will be put toward burnishing NJPAC's growing endowment, and the remainder, $7 million, will support its Early Learning Through the Arts program.

Since the 2000-01 recession began and nonprofit theatre and dance companies and presenting organizations began to see their budgets impacted by substantial decreases in public and private funding, a push has been on industrywide for companies to create endowments should they not already have one, or to considerably increase the size and holdings of their endowments if they do. Prudential's $10 million investment speaks to the industry's focus on endowment building and its success thus far.

Prudential has also played a major role in the $187 million capital campaign to build NJPAC. The foundation's total giving to the organization is now nearly $17.5 million.

NJPAC is the sixth-largest performing arts center in the United States, presenting a mix of music, dance, theatre, and multicultural events. It consists of two spaces: the unsurprisingly named Prudential Hall and the Victoria Theater.

Back in California, meanwhile, The New York Times on Tues., June 29 reported that the Annenberg gift will allow one of the most notable buildings in Beverly Hills, the Beverly Hills Post Office, which has lain dormant for approximately five years, to be converted into a cultural center.

The article stated that the overall cost of the new center will be $30 million; it's expected to be completed in 2007 and will include a 500-seat theatre, a 150-seat studio theatre, a rehearsal hall, classrooms, and a sculpture garden. Like the Prudential gift to NJPAC, children's theatre will be one of the new center's priorities.

—Leonard Jacobs