Hillman Foundation gives $7M for pandemic recovery

Carnegie Museums get largest grant at $1M

The Henry L. Hillman Foundation is allocating $7 million to 50plus arts and cultural groups in the Pittsburgh region to help them recover from closures and downsizing brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Funds will be used to close pandemic-related budget gaps, recall furloughed staff, reopen venues and relaunch programming, the Downtown-based philanthropy said.

The largest grant, $1 million, will go to the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, which operates four venues in the city: the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, The Andy Warhol Museum and the Carnegie Science Center.

Arts and cultural organizations “have been terribly impacted” by COVID-19 shutdowns and restrictions, “and we need to get behind them as they ramp up operations and programs in the next year,” said David Roger, president of the Hillman Family Foundations.

“With the prospect of additional federal support in the coming months and, hopefully, the end of this difficult period in sight, we thought this was the right time to provide needed support for the arts sector and encourage others to do so, too,” Mr. Roger said.

The 57 grants range from $20,000 to the $1 million gift to the Carnegie Museums.

Among the other large grants are $500,000 apiece to the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust, $350,000 to Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, $345,000 to the Mattress Factory, $250,000 to the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, $250,000 to Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, $200,000 to the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania and $175,000 to the Frick Pittsburgh.

The Frick said it plans to use its grant for general operations.

The Point Breeze venue — which includes the Frick Art Museum, Clayton Mansion and Car and Carriage Museum — was shuttered last year from mid-March until August during the initial COVID-19 shutdown.

It closed again in December during a spike in cases in the region and reopened in late January.

“We deeply appreciate the Hillman Foundation’s willingness to entrust us with such generous support, without any of the proverbial strings attached,” said Elizabeth Barker, executive director of The Frick. “Their exceptional generosity will help The Frick continue to bring exciting exhibitions and important programs to our community, despite the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic.”

Hillman allocated $ 3 million to the arts sector last summer to help during the pandemic.

“This round of grants is similar, … although the amounts are generally larger this time,” said Lauri Fink, senior program officer at Hillman.

“We attempted to be as comprehensive as possible in providing support to arts and culture organizations with which we’ve had long-standing relationships while also adding new organizations to better represent the full breadth of the arts sector,” she said.

Hillman said its various foundations provided more than $45 million in COVID-19 emergency response funds from March 2020 to March 2021.

The money included grants for basic needs, public health, education and support for nonprofits providing critical pandemic relief.