Metroparks System
Barbara Bosworth (2001)
Photography
Barbara Bosworth’s breathtaking impressions of the natural beauty in Cleveland’s metroparks reflect the foundation’s commitment to maintaining open spaces and greenways in our urban landscape. Bosworth, who grew up in the Chagrin River Valley just east of Cleveland and experienced the metroparks as “the forests of my childhood,” now teaches in and chairs the media and performing arts department at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. She is a recipient of the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and her work appears in more than a dozen contemporary photograph publications as well as in museum and private collections across the country. The tranquility and timelessness reflected in Bosworth’s images provide a photographic counterpoint to the events of 2001 and confirm the foundation’s long-standing conservation agenda.
Letter from the Executive Director
2001 Annual Report
The past year was one of reflection at the Foundation, prompted by changes both current and anticipated.
During our summer Trustee/Staff Retreat, I announced that I would be retiring January 15, 2003 after 14 years at the helm of this worthy enterprise. That change will come with this shift in leadership is inevitable, and Trustees began discussions on a search for my successor.
However, much of our discussion at the retreat focused on current and future Foundation grantmaking, and changes necessitated both by the changing nature of our assets and the rapidly shifting economy of the nation and the world. We also took a look backwards at the founding of this Foundation in 1952 and forward to our celebration of its 50th anniversary in 2002.
The planned reflection of the summer was followed by unplanned and shattering events of September 11. Though we quickly responded to the needs of victims, we agreed to hold to our previously planned course of grantmaking and community involvement.
The photographer of this year’s annual report, Barbara Bosworth, was selected long before these tragedies occurred. Her beautifully calming vision of the Cuyahoga County Metroparks exist in stark, but reassuring, contrast to what has transpired in 2001. When I first viewed these images in proof form, I actually felt gratitude that they will well represent our staying the course in the face of grief and the inexplicable.
In spite of the incredible volatility of the times, the Foundation made grants and provided services to the areas of interest we serve with optimism, pride and, hopefully, skill and compassion.
This year’s grantmaking, though somewhat limited by a restrictive budget, was fulsome and was highlighted by awards that reflect our ongoing interest in new ways of doing business. In the human services area our growing agenda in early child care issues led to a $400,000 grant to the Institute for Civil Society, Inc. to support a proposal for building more effective early learning systems in several states, including Ohio. A grant to Rainbow Hospitals Coalition for Greater Cleveland’s Children was also a reflection of this emerging strategy.
Grants to the Nature Conservancy for a better understanding for Great Lakes biodiversity and Cleveland State University for a study of biodiversity in the forests of the Metroparks System reflected our environmental agenda’s special concern with species preservation in this neck of the woods. Smart Growth was also a special emphasis in 2001 with a grant to the Western Reserve RC&D Center on Farmland Preservation representative of that expanding interest.
In the arts, our continuing support of the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture was indicative of our interests in developing broad-based community and regional involvement in arts programs and finance. A $200,000 commitment to Dobama, an excellent and well-managed local theater group for improvements to a new venue for their work reflects our commitment to maintaining and growing a lively arts community in Greater Cleveland.
2001 marked a downturn in Cleveland’s economy, particularly in the Downtown where office occupancy has declined and retail has diminished. A $300,000 multi-year grant to the Downtown Cleveland Partnership to support Downtown office, housing and retail development represents just one commitment to improvement. A small grant to the North Union Farmers Market to encourage these fledgling and increasingly successful neighborhood enterprises is representative of a special niche that makes good use of our resource.
Education continues to be a major focus of our grantmaking. Our continuing deep interest in the future of Cleveland Municipal School District was demonstrated by grantmaking in support of academic standards implementation and CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s support and development fund. A grant to Cleveland Tomorrow for the operations of the Cleveland Municipal School District’s Bond Accountability Commission as it helps to oversee more than $900 million in expenditures for physical improvements to the district’s schools is also indicative of our commitment.
Though I will not leave the Foundation until early in 2003, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the friends of the Foundation, our grantees and, most especially, the gifted staff and supportive Trustees of this exceptional organization for a great and, I believe, productive ride. I have loved this job! I will sorely miss having this challenging, sometimes daunting, but always immensely rewarding assignment.
I hope you find this report to be enlightening. As always, our grants, as described in this book, tell the most complete story of our work.
David Bergholz, Executive Director