Philanthropy and the Humanities
Sunday 23 September 2007
Trinity College, together with the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Humanities Research Centre ANU, and the University of Melbourne, conducted the first Symposium on Philanthropy and the Humanities on September 23rd and 24th. Hosted by Trinity College and the University of Melbourne, the Symposium brought together an invited group of sixty participants from foundations, universities, cultural institutions, the business world, politics, and other areas of public life.
The Symposium set out to explore such questions as: How much do scholars in the humanities know about the work of foundations and private benefactors? How can they make the value and excitement of their research apparent to those who might wish to support it? How can potential benefactors gain an informed view of the range and quality of current work in the humanities in Australia? How can universities and cultural institutions in Australia learn to expand and diversify their sources of income, giving greater support to imaginative ventures within the humanities?
The Symposium was opened with a specially recorded address by Mr Peter Goldmark, Director of the Climate and Air Program for Environmental Defence, New York. Mr Goldmark was formerly President of the Rockefeller Foundation, Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Budget Director for the State of New York, and CEO of the International Herald Tribune, Paris.