Arts/Culture

An $800 million endowment from the Walton Family Foundation will help fund Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art "in perpetuity," museum officials said Wednesday.

The museum, the brainchild of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. heiress Alice Walton, is under construction in Bentonville and scheduled to open Nov. 11. It is expected to exhibit one of the finest collections of American art in the world.

The 21st century has posed challenges to classical-music institutions. Superstar soprano Renée Fleming and celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma are leading the response.

During his consultancy to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ma visited the Illinois Youth Center and accompanied female inmates as they rehearsed a musical. Fleming, as Lyric Opera’s creative consultant, outlined plans to draw new audiences to the Lyric’s home, including the musical “Show Boat” in operatic season and concerts by non-opera artists like Sting. In addition to influential ideas, they bring a charisma that carries beyond concert halls and into popular culture.

The Levine Museum of the New South has nearly doubled its goal of raising $350,000 in its 20th anniversary year, raising more than $635,000 since last fall, and received a challenge grant from The Leon Levine Foundation that could total $3 million over 10 years. The anniversary fundraising effort, which will fund programming in the next fiscal year and begin to build reserves for the future, included a $150,000 matching gift from The Leon Levine Foundation.

A car museum in Los Angeles has received an automobile collection of 135 cars, a 300,000-square-foot building, and cash, which together total $100-million, from the widow of the publishing tycoon who founded the institution.

The Petersen Automotive Museum Foundation learned six weeks ago that it would receive a gift from Margie Petersen and the Margie & Robert E. Petersen Foundation, but according to the museum’s executive director, Buddy Pepp, it got wind of how large the donation would be only about a week ago.

A report released Monday by the American Association of Museums shows more than 70 percent of the nation's museums were under financial distress last year because most saw government and corporate funding reduced from an already bad year in 2009. At the same time, half of the nearly 400 museums in the survey reported increased attendance and educational programs. The median admission price remained $7 for adults.

An online clearinghouse for volunteers — the first of six local arts and culture collaborations in development to help stabilize the sector — is expected to roll out at the end of this month.

The Cultural Alliance of Southeastern Michigan is beta testing a website that lists volunteer opportunities at local arts and cultural organizations and lets residents sign up online.

In the hours following the March 11 earthquake in northeast Japan, the New York-based nonprofit Japan Society launched an earthquake relief fund.

As of Wednesday, a little more than $3.5 million has come in from over 11,700 donations. Among the thousands of donors is gallerist Joan Mirviss who specializes in Japanese art. With a personal gift and a percentage of profits from recent sales from her gallery, she's donated $10,500 so far.

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island is being honored for his advocacy on behalf of the arts. Whitehouse on Tuesday is being given the National Award for Congressional Arts Leadership from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the nonprofit group Americans for the Arts.

The Intiman Theater in Seattle, which is fighting for its survival, announced on Thursday that it had raised just over $450,000 so far in a seven-week emergency fundraising campaign and would stay open. The Intiman had previously said that it needed to raise $500,000 by the end of March and another $500,000 by September in order to keep operating, but apparently this was close enough. A press release said that the remaining $50,000 would be added to the next benchmark.

Almost half of U.K. cultural organizations believe it will take 10 to 20 years for philanthropy in the arts to benefit the industry at the desired level, according to new research published by Arts Quarter.

In December, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt announced plans to promote philanthropy to give the arts a boost in financial support. But only 11.5 percent of organizations see the “agenda being realised and effective within the lifetime of this current parliament."