Michigan Opera Theatre Gets Multi-Million Grant to Improve Infrastructure

The Michigan Opera Theatre has recently received a $5 million grant, one of the foundation’s largest-ever donation. The William Davidson Foundation has awarded this grant to enable the theater to improve infrastructure improvements, as well as support its programming.

“We see (this grant) as an important way to continue our role in supporting what is truly an amazing story going on at MOT,” said Davidson Foundation President and CEO Darin McKeever. “It’s a celebrated and visionary company, and it’s also an amazing story about the Detroit Opera House. (MOT founding general director) David DiChiera bet on Detroit when few others were. Now MOT’s leadership are setting a new bar for artistic excellence and creativity for performing arts organizations around the world.”

Michigan Opera Theatre Gets Grant to Make Improvements

So what will this $5 million grant go toward? The Funds will go toward making major infrastructure improvements as well as supporting two seasons of arts programming at that theatre. The Michigan Opera Theatre, which is based in Detroit has a long and storied history. The theater was established in 1963 by David DiChiera. Overture to Opera was the original name of this first iteration. This program was the educational program of the Detroit Grand Opera Association. This program funded trips to the Metropolitan Opera every year for participants.

This grant comes as the Michigan Opera Theatre has launched a $15 million fundraising campaign to make capital improvements to the theater. The 2700 seat, Opera House is home to most of the theaters’ main stage productions and educational programs. The award from the William Davidson Foundation will allow for $3 million in improvements to this 100-year old building.

Ethan Davidson, the chair of MOT’s board of directors, said: “We’ve got a 100-year-old opera house right in Detroit, which is great. But it’s a 100-year-old building. We realized at some point that, in terms of … bathrooms, elevators and so forth, if we’re going to talk about community and audience and including everybody, we need to have a more accessible building.”

Arts and Culture Grants

1. Firstly. there are grants available to U.S. IHE’s, nonprofits, agencies, tribes for digital projects in the humanities.
2. And there are also grants available to U.S. authors of published works to provide emergency financial assistance.
3. There are also to U.S. nonprofits, agencies, and tribes, for art activities and events
4. And there are also grants available to U.S. female composers to develop new operatic works. Funding of up to $15,000 to USA female composers to support career advancement and the creation of new operatic works.
5. Finally, there are grants available to U.S. artists and organizations for art projects that educate the public about contemporary issues.

GrantNews Notes

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