The Campaign for Cultural Facilities was the largest and most extensive private campaign to raise $82.5 million in private support to benefit arts and culture in Charlotte’s history – and an outstanding example of what is possible when a community unites to achieve a common goal.
Convened by the Arts & Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the Campaign for Cultural Facilities was launched in October 2006 with generous lead gifts from Bank of America, Duke Energy and Wachovia/Wells Fargo Foundation, totaling $35 million. More than 300 individuals, law firms and family foundations also made commitments bringing the total to $62.5 million.
In Fall 2008, the campaign stalled amidst the economic downturn. Only after Wells Fargo generously agreed to allow a private donor to name the entire cultural campus in order to inspire a significant gift did the Campaign reach its goal in the last week of the campaign with a $15 million naming gift from Leon and Sandra Levine of The Leon Levine Foundation. Duke Energy made an additional $5 million gift in honor of the Levines setting a historic record. The Levine Center for the Arts includes the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, the Mint Museum Uptown, the Knight Theater, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture and the 48-story Duke Energy Center.
The Campaign for Cultural Facilities raised $82.5 million in private support to provide:
- General operating endowments for four new cultural facilities (Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, The Knight Theater and the Mint Museum)
- General operating endowment for Discovery Place
- Operating and endowment support for the Charlotte Symphony
- Modest capital contribution for a new facility for North Carolina Dance Theatre
The Levine Center for the Arts transformed nearly two city blocks in uptown Charlotte into the hub of the city’s cultural community.
The Campaign for Cultural Facilities complemented an additional $148 million in public funds spent to construct these five new cultural facilities, and relied heavily on volunteer leadership and extraordinary partnerships among the corporate, governmental and nonprofit cultural community.
The Cultural Trust is proud to manage and invest the endowments for these cultural institutions and manage all donor communication related to the Campaign for Cultural Facilities.