Nonprofit Spotlight: A New Home for D'Art Artists

If you wander from studio to studio in the new D'Art Center in Norfolk, Virginia the 21 artists

	Vonnie Whitworth loves the light in her studio.

working there will enthusiastically tell you what they like most about their new home at 740 Duke Street:

• Being reunited after an explosion at their downtown Norfolk location in April 2016 displaced them for months.
• The creative energy that flows from the neighboring Chrysler Museum of Art, its hot glass studio and the new NEON arts district.
• The natural light streaming into their new home on two floors in an office building.The light is perfect for painting and creating other works of art.
  
  
  For  Carolyn Phillips, D'Art Center executive director, the move to the new D'Art at Duke "is all positive" and continues a tradition started in 1986 when the collaborative studio and gallery first opened in Norfolk. For artists like Vonnie Whitworth, a pastel artist on at least her third D'Art location, "it feels good to be here." Ken Wright, a long-time D'Art artist who creates with acrylics, likes his lighted-filled studio where he can  "focus on painting." 
  
  
  The artists moved to their new home recently with help from a recent $25,000 Hampton Roads Community Foundation grant that paid for building enhancements and moving expenses.  "To call this grant a lifesaver would be an understatement," Phillips says.
  
  
  In addition, a $5,000 grant from the Mermaid Fund helped sustain the visual art center when it had to vacate its former building. The Norfolk Arts and Humanities Commission started the Mermaid Fund at the community foundation in 2015. A $2,000 matching grant from the Business Consortium for Arts Support, which the community foundation helps fund, also helped sustain the art center while its artists were displaced.
  
  
  On March 23, 2016 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. the business consortium will sponsor an open house and benefit at the new D'Art at Duke . The center at 740 Duke Street is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 .m. to 5 p.m. and on Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m.

  

  Artist Ken Wright and Carolyn Phillips, D'Art director, are happy about the new center.

  
  

Giving Back: Rebekah Huber Keeps Arts Vibrant

If Rebekah Huber were alive today, she would likely be enthralled with Hampton Roads’ vibrant

Rebekah Huber

arts scene that now includes the NEON District near Downtown Norfolk and ViBe Creative District near the Virginia Beach oceanfront. 

A generous Norfolk resident who loved the arts, you would find her at symphony and opera performances as well as simply dancing while in line at her favorite grocery store. In 1985, she and her family created a Hampton Roads Community Foundation field-of-interest fund for the arts. The Paul S. Huber Fund pays tribute to her late father, a Norfolk newspaperman and its grants helped start the Business Consortium for Arts Support and continue to support it each year. 

Since 1987, the consortium has provided more than $20 million in operating support to 31 established area arts and cultural organizations. 

Sadly, Rebekah passed away at the age of 92 in 2007, but we can image how thrilled she would be to know that her legacy lives on and she continues to support the emerging arts districts through her permanent fund. Indeed, funding from the Huber Fund, along with four other Hampton Roads Community Foundation funds resulted in a $473,800 grant for the consortium which is underpinning the arts in 2016. 

We thank 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 through their community foundation to keep the arts humming in Hampton Roads.

 

You can also leave a legacy, click here to learn how to start a fund at the community foundation or donate to one.

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. )

Arts Come Alive in Norfolk's New NEON District

It has only been two years since Team Better Block showcased the potential for a downtrodden

Governor's School for the Arts students lit this alley.

section of Granby Street near downtown Norfolk, Virginia. Pop-up performance venues, galleries, cafes and coffee shops gave a glimpse of how this rundown, nondescript commercial district could be revived.

Since then visionaries, activists, artists and funders have worked together to bring to life the NEON District right where the pop-up Better Block event took place. NEON stands for the New Energy of Norfolk, but it also represents the colorful nature of Norfolk's new arts district. 

Last week the two-night Neon Festival drew thousands of people from throughout Hampton Roads to wander the streets and enjoy visual art, music, dance, comedy and food as part of Norfolk's Visual Arts Week. 

Yes, there was plenty of neon art along with new giant wall murals to add to the magic. The Business Consortium for Arts Support, whose funders include the Hampton Roads Community Foundation, helped underwrite this fun festival for arts lovers of all ages. 

The Downtown Norfolk Council, Chrysler Museum of Art, Governor's School for the Arts, Virginia Opera, Virginia Arts Festival and Virginia Stage Company were among the many organizations giving the NEON District a great vibe.Thanks to everyone who is helping breathe new life into this district. 

 (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. )

Rebekah Huber Enriches the Arts in Hampton Roads

The late Rebekah Huber liked to say that because her Norfolk, Virginia family's money "came from the community, we felt like we should give back to the community."

She made good on that promise in 1985 when

Rebekah Huber

she donated more than $2.5 million to the Hampton Roads Community Foundation to create the Paul S. Huber Memorial Fund, named for her late father. He had been president of Norfolk Newspapers, a predecessor to today's Virginian-Pilot and its parent company Landmark Media Enterprises.

 

In the mid-1980s area civic leaders were searching for a way to provide ongoing operating support for the arts in South Hampton Roads. The Huber Fund with its specialized interest in supporting a united arts fund provided the impetus in 1987 to start the Business Consortium for Arts Support.

Paul Huber

Today 27 businesses and foundations donate to the business consortium, which shares office space with the community foundation. Among the annual funders are the community foundation's Huber Fund and seven other field-of-interest funds dedicated to the arts. This month those funds provided a $446,000 grant so the business consortium can help area arts and cultural groups in the coming year.

Since 1987 the business consortium has awarded $18.5 million in grants to more than 45 different cultural arts organizations. More than $5.8 million of that amount has come from the Huber Fund.

This year 32 arts groups in South Hampton Roads received business consortium grants. They include the Virginia Symphony, the Suffolk Art League and the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art. Those organizations and others in turn provide 1,000 full- and part-time jobs for area citizens -- ranging from set designers and curators to musicians, actors and dancers. 

"General operating support is the hardest kind of money for a nonprofit to raise," says William Hennessey, executive director of the Chrysler Museum of Art, which receives consortium funds. "That's exactly what the business consortium provides."

"The fact that leading businesses contribute to the consortium sends a wonderfully positive message that what's good for the arts community is good for business," Hennessey adds.

We think that is a sentiment that would please Rebekah Huber, who loved going to classical music concerts and the theater. She died in 2007 at age 92 leaving her own named fund to the community foundation.

The $2.5 million endowed fund Rebekah Huber started in 1987 to honor her dad has already given out more than $5.8 million. Through investment growth her fund is now valued at more than $5 million.

That means Rebekah and Paul Huber will be supporting the arts in their home community forever.