PROVIDENCE – The Perelman Family Foundation pledged $25 million to establish an arts district at Brown University, the Ivy League school announced Tuesday.
The Perelman Arts District will represent “where the arts happen” at Brown, according to the release, encompassing prominent performance spaces on its College Hill campus. The district will also have spaces dedicated to research, teaching and training in the arts.
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The district will include the Lindemann Performing Arts Center, which is scheduled for opening in fall 2023. That center, which will serve as a hub for music, dance, theater and multimedia arts at Brown, is currently under construction across from Brown’s Perry and Marty Granoff Center for the Creative Arts and near other arts-centered academic facilities.
The district also will encompass teaching, gallery, rehearsal and performance spaces extending across College Hill, including the List Art Building, Literary Arts building and other performance, studio, recital and instruction spaces. Other arts spaces that Brown develops in the future would become part of the district.
“At Brown, the arts are integrated into everything we do,” Brown President Christina H. Paxson said. “We have spaces across the university where artists and non-artists engage with art forms to stimulate discovery and fuel innovative thinking. With this generous gift from Ronald Perelman’s family foundation, Brown will signal the connection between the creative and collaborative work taking place in these various art forms across campus.”
Ronald Perelman, who is CEO and chairman of MacAndrews & Forbes Inc., is a former Brown University trustee, father of two Brown graduates and one of the country’s leading philanthropists, particularly in the arts.
“The open-ended concept behind the arts district affirms the arts exist everywhere at Brown, and in fact, migrate wherever Brown’s artists go,” Perelman said. “The arts bring life to new ideas, foster a deep sense of collaboration and friendship, and form part of our nation’s soul. Brown uniquely understands the arts transcend individual spaces, and that they thrive when deeply woven throughout a wide community. I am so pleased to be able to support this extraordinary project that will be a beacon for arts and creativity for generations to come.”
