Regional Assets Investments - The John R. Oishei Foundation

Recent Grants

Here are some recent grants made by The John R. Oishei Foundation toward the goal of strengthening, leveraging regional assets in our community:

African American Cultural Center $90,000

To support building restoration, including renovating for additional usable space and providing outdoor general performance space. AACC is restoring a warehouse building in the rear of the existing cultural center for use as classroom and performance/gathering space. They are also constructing a safe outdoor area for use by neighborhood residents. For more information about the Center, please visit http://www2.pcom.net/aacc

Albright-Knox Art Gallery $125,000

To support the exhibition entitled the "Panza Collection: An Experience of Color and Light." Albright-Knox will be the only US gallery to host the exhibit in the US. "Color and light are the key concepts used to select and organize this exhibition, which explores the use of these elements by artists from the 1960s to the present. Beginning with artworks by pioneers in the use of actual light – fluorescent light in works by Dan Flavin and Robert Irwin, and Bruce Nauman’s use of neon light – the exhibition continues to the present with the visual light embodied in monochromatic paintings and sculptures by such artists as David Simpson, Phil Sims, Anne Truitt, and Anne Appleby. The exhibition not only traces this historical development of color and light in contemporary art, it also illuminates the continuing evolution of Panza’s philosophic interest in these elements, as realized in many of the works of art he has collected since 1956. A discrete installation is devoted to each of the sixteen artists, highlighting Panza’s penchant for collecting an artist’s work in-depth and allowing for more concentrated study of each artist included." For more information, please visit http://www.albrightknox.org.

Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra $300,000

To support the 2007 organization stabilization effort. The world-renowned Buffalo Philharmonic was founded in 1935. Since 1940, the Orchestra's permanent home has been Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Site with an international reputation as one of the finest concert halls in the United States. As Buffalo's cultural ambassador, the BPO has toured widely across the United States and Canada, including concerts at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Boston's Symphony Hall, San Francisco's Davies Hall, Montreal's Place des Arts, and twenty-two appearances in Carnegie Hall. During the tenure of current music director JoAnn Falletta, the Buffalo Philharmonic has rekindled its distinguished history of PBS broadcasts and recordings, including the release of eight new CDs of a highly diverse repertoire on the NAXOS and Beau Fleuve labels. For more information about the BPO, please visit http://www.bpo.org

Martin House Restoration Corp. $500,000

To support final construction costs for the Martin House Visitors' Center. The Toshiko Mori-designed visitor center pavilion will be part of Wright’s largest Prairie Style complex (32,000 square feet) which is currently undergoing a $40 million renovation to restore it to the original 1907 condition. Toshiko Mori, chair of the Department of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, has received numerous awards for her work. Mori’s design gracefully complements the revival of the historic Wright complex, employing Wright’s architectural philosophies in a 21st-century iteration of his “organic principles.” The transparent, glass-walled pavilion visually connects the landscape with its interior, and its proportions and geometries—such as the dramatically cantilevered roof—echo Wright’s Martin House design. The 6,000-square-foot building will serve as the entryway for visitors and will house exhibits featuring architectural drawings and archival photographs of the Martin House. For more information, please visit http://www.darwinmartinhouse.org/