We are thrilled to announce two matching gift challenges to support Framing the Future: one for unrestricted gifts, and another to support the Sally R. Bishop Prize and additional artist opportunities.

The Kirby Foundation is making a challenge gift to inspire unrestricted generosity to the campaign. The Kirby Foundation’s belief is that no one knows better what an organization needs than a competent staff and an engaged board. Between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019, the Foundation will match dollar-to-dollar every unrestricted gift between $500 and $10,000, up to $30,000.

Trustee Lisa Kirby Gibbs says that “this gift isn’t just about ArtsWorcester. It’s about strengthening the cultural vitality of the City of Worcester, about the arts, and the living artists in it, as well as inspiring new generosity.”

To help us meet this $30,000 goal, please check the “Kirby Foundation” box on the pledge form, or call and let us know you wish your gift to be directed to this challenge. A Pledge Form is available for download here. To learn about our five-year pledge period, and all the ways to give, click here.

In Memory of Sally Bishop

Sally Bishop (1936 – 1994) was an artist and teacher of art and art history. Born in Columbus, Ohio, she graduated from Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio, earned a teaching certificate at Ohio State University and a MFA in painting from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

A significant artist, an influential teacher, and a beloved colleague, Bishop was instrumental to the creation of the Cultural Assembly of Greater Worcester in the late 1970s, the organization that later became ArtsWorcester. She served as our first Board Chair.

Traditionally, the winning artwork in the ArtsWorcester Biennial has been given the Sally R. Bishop Prize, but no restricted funds have ever secured the naming of that prize. Lucey Bowen, who studied art under Sally, and her husband Richard Sites have issued a matching gift challenge to support the Sally R. Bishop Prize in perpetuity, to provide opportunities for artists, and to remember a teacher and artist whose impact was longer than her too-short life.

For every dollar given in Sally’s name to Framing the Future, Ms. Bowen and Mr. Sites will give two, to create 2-to-1 match up to $20,000.

To give in Sally’s name, simply check the box on the pledge form, or call and let us know you wish your gift to be directed to this challenge. For a pledge form, go here.

We thank Lisa Kirby Gibbs, Lucey Bowen and Richard Sites for their generosity, their tribute to our history, and their help framing our future.

Photograph: Stephen DiRado, Sally Bishop, Worcester, 1988 (location unknown).