817 Mackall Avenue
McLean, VA 22101
Tel: (703)893-6016
Fax: (703)448-1270
E-mail: [email protected]
Contact: Jillian Poole, President

Founded in 1991, the Fund for Arts and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe is a nonprofit U.S. corporation whose mission is to "respond to invitations to assess the needs of major [Central and East European] cultural institutions and to match expertise to those needs." Primarily through consulting and advisory services, the Fund provides assistance in the fields of nonprofit organization planning, public relations, marketing, fundraising, management, and governance. Through short-term, on-site visits to host institutions, volunteer consultants help draft development programs, plan organizational strategies, provide training courses, and participate in roundtable discussions and seminars. Since 1991, 37 Fund consultants have given their time, spending 747 days with host arts and cultural institutions in four countries. Continuing consultation is provided through ongoing communications between the host institution and the Fund consultant and return visits as needed. The Fund does not provide grants to individuals or organizations and does not support individual artists.

The Fund's president is Jillian Poole, a consultant in fundraising and institutional development. Poole was chief fund-raiser for the John F. Kennedy Center of Performing Arts in Washington D.C. for 19 years and adjunct professor of arts management at The Graduate School of American University. The Fund's board of advisors includes Wendy Luers, president of The Foundation for Civil Society; pianist Garrick Ohlsson (first American winner of the Chopin Competition); playwright Peter Schaffer; and Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana. Governed by five officers in consultation with its 26-member board of advisors, the Fund relies on a network of volunteer country directors for the implementation of specific projects. Since 1991, 34 volunteer Fund consultants have worked with arts and cultural institutions in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Russia.

Highlights of the Fund's recent activities include:

Czech Republic

• Consultation with the Donors Forum, an organization of some 60 Czech and U.S. corporations with interest in developing corporate philanthropy in the Czech Republic.
• Assistance to the Foundation for Museums and Galleries, an association of the "Big Four" Prague institutions: National Gallery, National Museum, Museum of Decorative Arts, and National Technical Museum.
• Design help for regional museums struggling to update the displays of their collections.

Hungary

• Directed a symposium, "Marketing Museums: a Collaborative Approach to Cultural Tourism," for the development of practical methods for government ministries, cultural organizations and travel bureaus to work together toward their common goals, and for increasing the customer service, "visitor-oriented" approach of traditional cultural organizations.

Poland

• Assistance to the leadership of the Warsaw Autumn Festival, a classical music event, to increase the participation of international composers.
• Depending on the availability of funds, continuing work on a major initiative to develop private philanthropic institutions and community trusts in Poland.

Russia

• Conducted a seminar on museum management with the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg. This program, attended by 20 directors of regional museums, was so successful that the Fund was asked to take the seminar on the road in mid-1997 to various Russian cities. (The Russian State Museum is the designated advisory center for 235 local museums throughout the federation.)

The work of the Fund has been supported by substantial donations of individual professional services (valued at $290,000 in 1996) and corporate contributions from Lufthansa German Airlines, Marriott Hotels, and others. While originally established as a short-term project, the Fund is clearly capable of at least another three-five years of creative work. As President Poole stated in the Fund's 1996 Annual Report: "The collapse of communism, heralded as it was, left enormous lacunae in the social fabric. The cultural institutions, with tremendous energy and great imagination, are filling some of those gaps in remarkably ingenious ways. It is our joy to help contribute to that effort."

Sponsored by:
Center for Civil Society International

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