Bloomberg Family Foundation's $32 Million Arts Advancement Initiative

(2-16-2011) Erica Orden for The Wall Street Journal:

A year after ending a charitable program that pumped nearly $200 million into hundreds of arts and social-service organizations, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is reopening the pipeline to his personal fortune through his multibillion-dollar family foundation.

Beginning Tuesday, Mr. Bloomberg's foundation will send letters to 250 cultural groups around the five boroughs, inviting them to apply for some of the $32 million the charity plans to distribute to arts organizations over the next two years. "At Bloomberg Philanthropies, we see the arts as fundamental to New York City's cultural and economic wellbeing," the letter says.

For nearly a decade, the Carnegie Corp. of New York funded almost 600 of the city's arts and social-services groups on behalf of an anonymous donor, widely assumed to be the mayor. Mr. Bloomberg's aides have long declined to confirm his involvement.

The end of that program, particularly amid a recession that curtailed both public funding and private donations, left arts groups scrambling to find new sources of financing. Many of those are likely to be elated to learn that the Bloomberg Family Foundation is picking up the mantle.

Continue reading here.