Most capital campaigns end the way plays do not: quietly, with an extension and a smaller number than promised. The Stratford Festival closed its Inspiring Excellence Campaign this week at the full $45 million, in the final season of the artistic director who made the campaign his farewell project.
The three-year effort drew gifts from more than 1,000 donors, patrons, and community members. About half of the $45 million goes to operations, paying for the work on the Festival’s stages. The rest is endowed, and most of the endowment lands in a new Antoni Cimolino Endowment Fund, named for the artistic director whose tenure it is meant to outlast.
Where the endowed money works
The Cimolino fund supports three parts of his artistic program. The Cimolino Artistic Growth Award gives one Festival artist each year the chance to train in a new area of practice; its first recipient, Emilio Vieira, will take an artistic leadership residency. The Festival’s coaching program, which offers artists year-round development and mentorship, draws from the fund. So does The Lab, the Festival’s center for research and development, where new work is built with creators from across Canada and beyond.
“This campaign was very dear to my heart,” Cimolino said. “I wanted to ensure that at this important time of rebuilding and artistic change, that our artists had the resources to do their best work.”
Executive Director Anita Gaffney called the close “more than a fundraising milestone,” describing “a powerful investment in artistic talent and creative possibility.” Board Chair Lawrence N. Stevenson was precise about the record: “the largest fundraising initiative in Stratford Festival history dedicated to artistic excellence and development.”
The donors on the wall
The campaign was led by Cimolino and Gaffney with the board, including Advancement Chair John M. Cassaday and Stevenson’s predecessors Robert Gorlin and David L. Adams. Four households and family foundations gave $5 million or more: Daniel Bernstein and Claire Foerster; Jane and Raphael Bernstein; Sandra and Jim Pitblado; and the Weston family. The $1 million tier runs long, among them the Northpine Foundation, Ophelia Lazaridis, Tony and Anne Arrell, Marilyn and Charles Baillie, Laura Dinner and Richard Rooney, Andy and Helen Spriet, and Catherine Wilkes, whose gift is in memory of David Wilkes.
A funded handoff
The Stratford Festival, in Stratford, Ontario, is one of the largest repertory theatres in the world, and leadership changes there are generational events. Incoming Artistic Director Jonathan Church inherits the rare version of the job that starts with the money already raised. “I inherit a Festival strengthened by the vision and generosity of this remarkable community,” Church said. “This investment in artists and creative development provides an extraordinary foundation for the years ahead.”
Stratford’s audiences will grade the next chapter on stage. Its donors have already filed their review: $45 million, at goal, on time.
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