Rebekah Huber Remains Relevant in the Arts World

If Rebekah Huber was alive today she would likely be

Rebekah Huber

enthralled with Hampton Roads' vibrant arts scene that now includes the NEON District near downtown Norfolk and ViBe Creative District near the Virginia Beach oceanfront.

This generous Norfolk, Virginia resident who passed away in 2007 at age 92 loved the arts. You would find her at symphony and opera performances but also dancing while waiting in line at her favorite grocery store.

At the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, our staff can only imagine how thrilled Rebekah would be to help attract all kinds of people to enjoy the emerging arts districts. Rebekah does this while also supporting 31 more established arts and cultural groups through the Business Consortium for Arts Support. Since 1987 the consortium has provided more than $20 million in operating support for area arts organizations.

Rebekah stays relevant today because in 1985 she and her family created a community foundation field-of-interest fund for the arts. The Paul S. Huber Fund pays tribute to her late dad, a Norfolk newspaperman. Huber Fund grants helped start the consortium and continue to support it annually.

Rebekah "was always open to trying new things," says her nephew Peter Huber of Norfolk. "She would like that the consortium supports cornerstone organizations and also new organizations that come along."

In December 2015 the Huber Fund joined four other community foundation arts funds to fuel a $473,800 grant for the consortium. This funding along with that from other area foundations and businesses will help underpin the arts in southeastern Virginia in 2016.

The community foundation thanks Rebekah Huber for her foresight and generosity along with these community foundation arts funders --  the Ashinoff Family, Lee A. and Helen G. Gifford, William A. Goldback and John L. Roper 2nd and Sara Dryfoos Roper Fund. The donors named here have all have passed away but left legacies that keep the arts humming in Hampton Roads. 

 
 (The Hampton Roads Community Foundation is a regional community foundation started in 1950 as the first community foundation in Virginia. It is among nearly 750 community foundation around the country serving specific geographic regions. It is the largest grant and scholarship provider in southeastern Virginia and manages more than 400 charitable funds created by donors from all walks of life. Over the decades it has provided more than $210 million to improve life for residents living in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia, including the cities of Chesapeake, Franklin, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Smithfield, Suffolk and Virginia Beach. It also serves people in Isle of Wight and Southampton counties and the Eastern Shore of Virginia, including Accomack and Northampton counties. Learn more at hamptonroadscf.org. You can click here to locate a community foundation near you. )