The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation donated $20,000 to the University of Idaho Foundation in support of the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival for the second consecutive year.
“The grant covers a small part of the jazz festival budget,” said James Brownson, jazz festival director of development and marketing. “It’s very important to have that money. We couldn’t get by without funding from our sponsors and organizations like the Paul Allen foundation.”
The foundation was started in 1988 by the cofounder of Microsoft and his sister. The arts and culture grants support professional artists in Canada, Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Alaska and Washington, said Jim McDonald, foundation director of arts and culture grants.
“So bringing professional artists to any community, especially outside of the large urban cores,” McDonald said. “So for this festival, what we really like is how John Clayton, the artistic director, brings really topnotch talent to Moscow for not only the students of the university there in the workshops, but also for the local community.”
The money donated by the PGAF Foundation is allocated to the festival’s budget for artists, Brownson said.
“To pay for artists, to bring artists to the jazz festival,” Brownson said. “Their interest is really bringing high quality preforming arts and music to the region.”
McDonald said the foundation started communicating with UI several years before awarding the festival money in 2011.
“People like myself, the program officers,’ responsibility is to know what is going on out in the community, that fits our criteria and our priorities,” McDonald said. “And we invite people to bring proposals to us.”
McDonald said the foundation appreciated how the jazz festival connected students and community with high-level artists.
“Within the arts, and throughout the region, we look at supporting a variety of disciplines,” McDonald said. “All based really around supporting contemporary work that’s really addressing today’s issues and climates and anything related to today’s community.”
McDonald said he met with representatives from the jazz festival and the UI Foundation, seeking to create a partnership between the organizations.
“Asking them to come in, they already met our criteria,” McDonald said. “We then put our recommendations forward to the board of the foundation and ultimately, the board is the one that supports the recommendations.”
The jazz festival brings national attention to UI, which the PGAF Foundation also appreciates, McDonald said.
“It’s just a really positive and high-profile program for the University of Idaho,” McDonald said.
McDonald said he will visit the jazz festival for the first time this year Saturday night.
“We always try to do that with our grant (recipients),” McDonald said. “Go out and see the work ourselves.”