The Wallace Foundation Initiative

The Wallace Foundation is an independent, national foundation dedicated to supporting and sharing effective ideas and practices that expand learning and enrichment opportunities for all people. Its three current objectives are: strengthening education leadership; enhancing out-of-school learning; and building appreciation and demand for the arts.

Chicago is one of the first of six cities chosen by The Wallace Foundation to test and maintain effective participation-building practices with the goals of developing a “knowledge portfolio” of that can benefit many other organizations and creating “learning networks” to help elevate the visibility of participation-building and spread the lessons broadly.

The Wallace Foundation is taking a city-based approach to its arts funding to help improve arts participation in designated cities. Nine organizations in Chicago have received direct grants from the Wallace Foundation called Wallace Excellence Awards.  Nineteen organizations currently have Arts Engagement grants from the Trust to advance the field in these areas.  Twenty-three small organizations have received support from AEE to implement projects developed through their participation in some of the network’s learning opportunities.  The combined impact of this grantmaking exceeds $3 million in the Chicago region.

The work of the Foundation has expanded to include Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and Minneapolis/St. Paul. Read more about the focus area programs of The Wallace Foundation.