KentPresents grant to KHS for Art Enrichment

KentPresents Grants $1,000 for Art Enrichment
to the Kent Historical Society

The Kent Historical Society is among 26 non-profit organizations serving Litchfield County receiving funds from KentPresents, the annual ideas festival whose inaugural event was held in Kent during August 2015.

The $1,000 grant will be used to provide need-based scholarships for the Kent Historical Society’s Art Enrichment Program. The summer art program has been offered to children for the past two summers and has proven quite popular.

Michael Everett, President of the Kent Historical Society Board, said, “This grant will enable us to bring more children to our popular arts program who may not otherwise been able to afford our program. Our program provides many stimulating art classes to children during the summer break. Children with a passion for art, who might not otherwise be able to attend, will now have access to this fun program.”

An application for the scholarship is now available.

All groups receiving awards provide social and emergency services, housing, educational and economic opportunities and enhance the cultural and artistic lives of low and moderate income individuals and families in Kent and nearby communities. In selecting the recipients, special emphasis was placed on basic needs, emergency services and education programs, such as the art education program that the Kent Historical Society provides.

“We are very pleased that in our first year KentPresents has been able to make meaningful grants to so many organizations,” said Donna and Ben Rosen of Kent, founders and guiding spirits of KentPresents. “The individual grants range in size from 1% of an organization’s annual fund-raising to 46%. As we grow in the years to come we hope to continue to support need-based groups that help people in our communities to thrive.”

The inaugural KentPresents, held at the Kent School August 13-15, brought together 70 leaders in a variety of fields for cultural and intellectual stimulation. The Rosens will shortly announce dates and details for KentPresents 2016.

The Rosens are members of the Kent Historical Society. Mr. Rosen is chairman emeritus of the California Institute of Technology; chairman emeritus of Compaq Computer; a former venture capitalist; currently on boards of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (emeritus) and New York Philharmonic (emeritus); former Met Opera board member; and former Columbia Business School board chairman. Mrs. Rosen was a longtime contemporary art gallery owner in New Orleans, and is now active in philanthropy, the visual arts, and serves on boards of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New Orleans Museum of Art and the American Friends of the British Museum.

For further information visit the KentPresents website at www.kentpresents.org

The Kent Historical Society’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret and present the rich history of Kent as well as to provide educational and research material to enrich the public understanding of Kent’s artistic and cultural heritage. For more information, contact: Brian Thomas, Executive Director, 860-927-4587, director@kenthistoricalsociety.org.