GM foundation has been ramping up giving in the last six months in its key mission areas — education, health and human services, environment and energy and community development.

GM resumes arts grants

$225,000 to aid 3 groups

By MARK STRYKER FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

   The General Motors Foundation pulled annual arts funding to Detroit institutions in late 2008 in the wake of the collapse of the auto industry.

   But with profits percolating, GM has gotten back in the game, making recent grants of about $125,000 to Michigan Opera Theatre, $75,000 to Mosaic Youth Theatre and $25,000 to the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.

   For arts groups that have struggled with rising deficits, staff layoffs and artistic cuts during the recession, news that significant GM dollars have started to flow to culture has been greeted with elation.

   “It’s a huge deal for us,” said Rick Sperling, Mosaic founder and CEO. “Ford, GM and Chrysler were our largest annual corporate sponsors, and we lost GM and Chrysler in the last few years. To get GM back will make a huge difference in our ability to break even.”

   Along with steep declines in individual giving and ticket sales, the drastic fall-off in auto money and other corporate support waylaid Detroit arts groups, pushing some, including Michigan Opera Theatre, to the brink of insolvency.

   MOT general director David DiChiera said that GM’s recent gift would help MOT rebound from the worst economic climate he’s ever seen in Detroit — even though the total is about half of the $250,000 GM used to give.

   “We’re grateful,” DiChiera said. “We are all prepared to work with all of our support systems to whatever degree they can help.”

   Metro Detroit arts groups used to receive more than $1 million annually from GM. The Chrysler Foundation, which also pulled its cultural funding during the recession and has yet to restart broad-based arts giving, gave more than $2 million to local arts groups as recently as 2006, according to Eileen Wunderlich, manager of corporate communications.

   Arts funding figures for the Ford Motor Company Fund were not available but a Ford spokeswoman said the fund’s overall philanthropy fell from $36 million in 2007 to $20 million in 2010.

   With GM returning to profitability, the company’s foundation has been ramping up giving in the last six months in its key mission areas — education, health and human services, environment and energy and community development. In December, the foundation committed $27.1 million over five years to help the United Way restructure five metro Detroit high schools.

   Carolyn Markey, GM communications manager for public policy, said that the foundation will continue expanding its grant-making activities, including gifts to the arts, but that it wouldn’t be returning to pre-2008 levels anytime soon. According to tax returns, the foundation gave $31.4 million worldwide in 2007 but that figure fell to $8 million in 2009.