Endowments announced at Community Foundation celebration

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September 20, 2007

By Ida Brown / senior staff writer The Meridian Star Thu Sep 20, 2007, 11:58 PM CDT

The future of a local bi-state art competition and accessibility to the arts for youth have been secured thanks to two special endowments.

The gifts — an Alliance Endowment for Meridian Museum of Art and a gift matching initiative to support children and youth access to the arts — were announced at Thursday’s Community Foundation of East Mississippi’s reception celebrating the arts held at Meridian Little Theatre.

Bill Patterson, chief executive officer of Alliance Health Center, announced the establishment of the Alliance Endowment for the museum at the Community Foundation. According to Patterson, the endowment will provide perpetual support for Meridian Museum of Art’s Bi-State Competition, which is held annually in the spring.

“Alliance’s contribution is a huge help to the museum and to the Bi-State,” said Terry Heder, MMA director.

“The Bi-State is the cornerstone of our exhibition programs and a historic part of the museum that has been going on since 1974. It is a critical program for us, it recognizes and celebrates the best art work being done in Mississippi and Alabama, and also brings the best work done all around the region to our hometown,” Heder said. “It also is a fantastic educational opportunity, not only because of the quality of the work but also because of the variety of the work.”

Heder said the endowment also will help defray the expense of presenting such an endeavor.

“Any program such as this is expensive to put on,” he said. “It costs money for everything — from the prizes to the printing of publicity. The contribution from Alliance Health Center is lifegiving, a huge help for us to have that ongoing support that we can count on every year.”

Suzanne Helveston and E.A. Herron, daughters of the late Susan Herron, announced a gift matching initiative to support children and youth access to the arts. This initiative was approved by the Community Foundation of East Mississippi’s board of directors with funding from the Susan Herron Arts & Education Endowment, a memorial fund established at the Community Foundation following Mrs. Herron’s death.

Through this initiative, the foundation will match individuals gifts dollar-for-dollar, up to $100 to nonprofit arts organizations which expose area children and youth to the arts.

“We and our dad (Charles Herron) are just thrilled about this initiative because it has taken two things that she loved so much — children and the arts,” Helveston said. “Her legacy, all her work that she gave back to the community, it’s still here, it’s so present.”

Helveston commended the foundation for its creation of the initiative.

“With this matching fund, the board really did a great job of streamlining a charitable organization that had to do with music and the arts. It really defines the kind of person she was,” she said.

“And this way, she is able to give back to the community to things that did not exist when she was alive — like the MSU Riley Center, the Meridian Symphony Orchestra’s Children’s Concert, and Meridian Little Theatre’s summer program for kids. Her legacy is still being carried out, her love for music and children is still thriving through this fund,” she said.

The reception also included the Community Foundation of East Mississippi’s annual report to the community and featured a five-minute video produced through a grant from the Riley Foundation’s summer internship program.

Will Hayes, intern, produced the video with assistance from Meridian-based Shepperd Multimedia. The video was the first in a series of six videos which document the work of generous individuals in giving back to improve the quality of life in East Mississippi. According to Roman Herrington, executive director of the foundation, each video will be released separately through the end of the year and will be available online

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