SPECIAL GIFTS AND FUNDS
Below are our Memorial Gifts and Special Funds.
To donate please click here, and indicate which fund you would like your gift to go towards in the “memo” section.
Thank you for your support!
Lisa Bottalico Dance Studio
For 25 years, Lisa Bottalico has captivated our hearts with her unparalleled talent and dedication to the art of flamenco. Her influence extends well beyond our dance studio, shaping the lives of countless dancers and enriching our community with the passion and grace of this vibrant art form.
As we celebrate her remarkable 25-year milestone, we are embarking on a special initiative: naming our dance studio in her honor. It is a tribute worthy of her legacy—a lasting testament to her enduring impact on our organization and the world of flamenco.
We invite you to be a part of this exciting endeavor by contributing to our fundraising campaign. Your support will not only help us rename the studio, but also ensure that future generations of dancers continue to benefit from Lisa’s legacy of excellence. Together, we can create a lasting tribute that reflects the profound impact Lisa has had on our community.
Ferris Olin Cultural Collaborative
To honor Ferris Olin – scholar, curator, educator, and librarian – a fund of $60,000 will support the Ferris Olin Cultural Collaborative, an annual summit that will bring together Princeton and Trenton-area arts and educational organizations, youth service agencies, and organizations that bring art to underserved populations to connect and share information. This collaboration will make service to the community more effective, with organizations forging partnerships that enhance and strengthen their contributions. Additionally, through the Ferris Olin Cultural Collaborative, the Arts Council of Princeton will identify and fund teaching artists to implement unique cultural workshops for the youth participants in our outreach programs.
Judith K. Brodsky Print Studio Fund
By naming the Judith K. Brodsky Print Studio, we honor Judy’s role in initiating printmaking in Princeton. When Judy Brodsky became a printmaker in graduate school in the 1960s, she was so inspired by the medium that she created a printmaking workshop in Princeton and soon established Princeton as a printmaking center. The artists who took her class became household names through the wonderful prints they created over the next decades; Maggie Johnson, Marie Sturken, Joan Needham, Elizabeth Monath, Helen Schwartz, Trudy Glucksberg, and many others fell in love with the process of making prints under Judy’s guidance. In the 1970s, the group published three portfolios which now reside in the state’s and nation’s museums.
Maria Quinn Fund
This fund honors the creative life of Maria Quinn. Gifts made in memory of Maria (Mia) will support our arts education programs for underserved students, extending the joys of creative self-expression to all.
Dick Blofson
This fund honors the memory of Dick Blofson, a friend of the Arts Council, whose creativity spanned decades of professional and personal pursuits. Gifts made to honor the importance of the arts in Dick’s life will support programs and scholarships for older Princetonians to encourage and support the pursuit of creative self-expression.
The Nancy Carole Schaefer Fund
The Nancy Carole Schaefer Fund was established to honor and celebrate Nancy’s life-long commitment to the power of art to change lives. A dedicated teaching artist who worked with incarcerated teens in New Jersey, she was an ArtsExchange instructor at the Arts Council for many years. This fund will support outreach programs to and scholarships for low-income children and teens, so that they may experience the joy of creative self-expression.
Nancy Carole Schaefer
The Michael Graves Fund
The Michael Graves Fund was established in 2012 to address both anticipated and unexpected maintenance costs of the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts. This fund goes a long way toward helping us maintain professional space for our classes, exhibitions, performances, and private rental parties and meetings. It is waiting to be named by a Guardian Angel, but open for contributions at any level.
Anne Reeves Fund
Anne Reeves Fund for Community Arts Initiatives and Artist-In Residence Program includes exhibitions, performances and educational programs in partnership with resident and visiting professional artists. Many of these programs are new initiatives designed specifically for the Arts Council’s constituency.
Artist-In-Residence
Arts in Healthcare Fund
Arts in Healthcare Fund supports Art as Wellness and other Arts Council programs supporting people with disabilities and special needs. The fund was launched in 2013 during Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October) with “Feel Good Felting,” a workshop specifically designed for breast cancer patients, survivors and supporters. This workshop was the pilot program for a series of related workshops offered at the Robeson Center and other locations in the area. Heartfelt thanks to Liz & Reid Murray and Debbie Schaeffer & Steve Ritzau for kick-starting the fund.
The Kristina Johnson Memorial Fund
The Kristina Johnson Memorial Fund was established in honor of lawyer, art collector and lover of life, Kristina Barbara Johnson. Kristina, who passed away in April 2013, served on the Arts Council of Princeton’s Board of Trustees and co-chaired the ACP’s Capital Campaign. The Kristina Johnson Library, housed in the Paul Robeson Center’s Communiversity Room, serves as a place for students and instructors to find inspiration as well as a casual gathering place to sit and chat about making art. Contributions to the Kristina Johnson fund support ACP studio spaces.
Kristina Johnson
Howard B. Waxwood Scholarship Fund
Howard B. Waxwood Scholarship Fund provides scholarships for students of all ages for classes, camps, and workshops. Howard was the son of Howard Benedict Waxwood I and was one of the first African-Americans to graduate from Princeton High School. He graduated from Rutgers University in 1926 and in 1947 became the principal of the first integrated elementary school in Princeton, which is now the John Witherspoon Middle School.
The Jeff Nathanson Fund
The Jeff Nathanson Fund was established in honor of Jeff Nathanson who served as the Executive Director for the Arts Council from 2005-2016. One of his favorite events was our gallery program Kids at Work: Discovery Through Art. This program invites local schoolchildren and their teachers into the Robeson Center for a Taplin Gallery tour, followed by a hands-on art-making workshop based on the artwork in the current exhibition. Funding will be accepted in Jeff’s name and your tax deductible contribution ensures this popular program continues.
The Lonni Sue Johnson Fund
The Lonni Sue Johnson Fund for Arts Education was established in honor of the accomplished artist and illustrator, Lonni Sue Johnson, who created signature designs for the Arts Council of Princeton in her early career. Lonni was a professional illustrator for 31 years, published by The New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Washington Post. In 2007, she was diagnosed with amnesia after a viral encephalitis destroyed the part of her brain that forms new and retrieves past memories. She continues to develop her visual skills and creates illustrated word puzzles while keeping a detailed record of her thoughts for us to see her creative ideas in spite of her mental disability. This is a forward-looking fund, designed to ensure the continued role of the Arts Council in providing quality arts education programming in our community.
Enthusiastic, by Lonni Sue Johnson, 2009