Monday, March 01, 1999

Westons' gift makes new CAC a reality

---

$1.2 million puts center at 75 percent of goal

BY OWEN FINDSEN
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Photo montage of new Contemporary Arts Center. | ZOOM |

        With a $1.2 million gift announced Sunday, the Contemporary Arts Center has raised close to three quarters of the money needed to built the new CAC building.

The money comes from arts supporters Alice F. and Harris K. Weston, who have previously promised a $1 million bequest to the CAC, making their total contribution $2.2 million.

        The CAC board has raised $16.9 million toward the cost of the $27.5 million building, designed by London architect Zaha Hadid, to be built on the northwest corner of Sixth and Walnut streets, downtown. Groundbreaking for the building will be on Feb. 1of next year.

        Going to permanently endow the CAC director's chair is $1 million of the Weston gift. “The total cost of the building includes a $5 million endowment,” explained Charles Desmarais, whose title now becomes the Alice and Harris Weston Director, “so this gift does go to the new building.”

        The new CAC is being built with $4.5 million from the City of Cincinnati, and $3.5 million from the State of Ohio, as part of the state's new biennial budget. The Westons are the largest single donors to date for the project and will have the new CAC board room named in their honor.

        The fund-raising campaign and the design process for the new CAC are both at the halfway point. Sunday, Ms. Hadid presented schematic designs for the interior spaces of the building, which is the halfway point of the design-construction process.

        “The center is in the midst of a success story,” campaign chairman Joe Hale said. “This project has gotten more international press attention than any other event in Cincinnati.”

        Campaign consultant Pat Ryan, of Staley, Robeson, Ryan and St. Lawrence, Inc. has completed a review of the campaign and said that the building is now “a 98-99 percent certainty.”

        Mr. and Mrs. Weston are active in and major supporters of arts and community projects, including the CAC, Cincinnati Art Museum and the Aronoff Center for the Arts.

       

---

Bad guy puts cops on the spot
A bicentennial honor for 'Little Gib'
State scouts bicentennial barns
Slain girl's gifts continue 5 years after death
E-check to be a bit kinder on cars today
March brings a weather roller coaster
Westons' gift makes new CAC a reality
Cincinnati's Century of Change
Victim: If anything happens, don't cry
Bureaucracy delays WWII medal
In yoga's embrace
Warren Co. church lost to fire, but congregation didn't lose God
Remember to watch 'Any Day Now'
'A Mighty Spirit' fills theater with joy
Argument leaves 1 man shot
Curriculum review under way
Defendant calls off mail fraud plea deal
Lottery hopes daytime drawings will spark interest
Police chief job won't be filled soon
Ross going to 4-period school days
Students help break ground
TRISTATE DIGEST
Warren has annexation forum
Woodlawn recruits residents for crime watch