Kansas City Ballet Recipient of $900,000 Kresge Foundation Grant for Bolender Center Renovation

KANSAS CITY, MO (February 10, 2010) — President of Kansas City Ballet Board of Directors Siobhan McLaughlin Lesley and Capital Campaign Steering Committee Co-Chair Dr. John Hunkeler announced today that The Kresge Foundation has selected Kansas City Ballet as a recipient of a $900,000 challenge grant toward the completion of the Todd Bolender Center for Dance and Creativity, the company’s future home.

“This extraordinary gift will do so much to help us complete this important project that has been in the works for over a decade,” stated Board President Lesley. “The vision for our company is to have Kansas City become a destination for dance in the world, and a facility such as this will provide one of the fundamental tools to turn this vision into reality.”

The challenge grant requires the Ballet to raise $3 million over the next 18 months, toward the total remaining campaign goal of $5.8 million, to receive Kresge funds.

Dr. John Hunkeler, former Board President for the Ballet and current co-chair of the Igniting the Future Capital Campaign for the building added, “We feel extremely honored to have been selected to receive a grant from such a prestigious national foundation. The Kresge Foundation’s challenge grant validates the importance of this project to the arts in our community and will serve to energize our committee to reach the goal to receive their match but also to complete the campaign.”

The historic Power House building on the west edge of the Union Station campus is currently being renovated as the future home of Kansas City Ballet.  Named in honor of Todd Bolender, who served as Artistic Director from 1981 to 1995, the Center will provide a permanent home for the Ballet company as well as increase space for its highly regarded training academy, boasting a current enrollment of 600 students at two campuses, downtown and Johnson County.

The $39 million project, including a $7 million endowment to support the building’s operating costs once it is open, is within 15% of achieving its fundraising goal.  “This has been an heroic campaign effort by our Board of Directors, committee volunteers, individual, corporate and foundation donors, staff and community partners, including the Downtown Council,” said Jeffrey J. Bentley, Executive Director of the nationally respected professional dance company. “The commitment to this company, its work and its future is so very heartening.”

Anyone interested in learning more about the capital campaign for the Bolender Center or Kansas City Ballet in general, can contact Jennifer Wampler, Development Director (jwampler@kcballet.org) at 816-931-2232 x 1309 or Jeffrey Bentley (jbentley@kcballet.org) at 816-753-8787. 

A virtual tour of the renovations is available online at the Kansas City Ballet website: www.kcballet.org.

About Kansas City Ballet
Founded in 1957, Kansas City Ballet is a 25-member professional ballet company under the direction of Artistic Director William Whitener and Executive Director Jeffrey J. Bentley. The company’s mission is to offer our community, region and dance profession, dance experiences of the highest quality. The Kansas City Ballet is home to Kansas City Ballet School for nearly 600 children and adults, offering professional training for the career-minded student as well as for those seeking a healthy lifestyle. Through our professional company, school and community outreach programs such as ROAD, Project X, and Dance INFORMances, we seek to nurture and develop our artists, audiences and students in the creativity, diversity and joy of dance.

###

Return to Press Releases