The Ghiberti Foundation

The Ghiberti Foundation (Tax ID 94-3402512) is the arts and culture foundation at Grace Cathedral. The Foundation seeks to inspire and enrich diverse communities through the arts, education, and public conversation in collaboration with other cultural, educational, and civic organizations.

Grace Cathedral is a significant mediating and unifying institution in the Bay Area, and the Ghiberti Foundation was organized to build on this role without reference to any denominational identity. The Cathedral board of trustees realizes that a secular foundation rather than the Cathedral itself, comprising individuals who represent the Bay Area's diverse cultures, could best coordinate the non-religious programs at Grace Cathedral. Ghiberti Foundation programs include:

Acting and Empathy

In collaboration with Anna Deavere Smith Projects and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, we are honored to present Acting and Empathy.

Acting is a transformational experience. It is the art of communicating stories but it is also the art of receiving the stories that others are trying to tell you. Quite simply, it is the art of empathy. Join us in San Francisco for what promises to be a rewarding acting workshop. This intensive workshop is created by award winning actress/playwright and highly skilled teacher Anna Deavere Smith.

Please note that the application deadline is Monday, May 20.

Conversants
At the end of every day, we will convene for reflection about what you each went through in the day’s work and conversation. To spark and broaden our conversation, guests will be invited to talk with us. Anna Deavere Smith will interview the guests and moderate the group conversation. The theme of the end of the day conversations will be how to inspire a more empathic, just community in your midst and hospitality. Conversants will include the Very Rev. Dr. Jane Shaw, Dean of Grace Cathedral, and the Rev. Cn. Mark E. Stanger, Canon Precentor of Grace Cathedral.

Music at Grace Cathedral
The Ghiberti Foundation supports music at Grace Cathedral through high-quality series of musical and theatrical performances with the goal of bringing performers representing various cultures and musical disciplines to Grace Cathedral.  Also, the Cathedral is a glorious space both for self-produced collaborative concerts and as a rental space for other organizations, both local and international. Performances produced by the Ghiberti Foundation include free organ recitals, and performances of the Grace Cathedral Choir of Men and Boys, as well as collaborations with select groups.  In 2011, The Ghiberti Foundation co-produced the only San Francisco performance of the Vienna Boys Choir.

Education
The Ghiberti Foundation provides support to The Community Preschool, Grace Cathedral, which serves low-income families by offering one-third of its enrollment a full scholarship to the families in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco and sliding scale tuition to another third of its students.

The Ghiberti Foundation also provides education opportunities for Bay Area Schools and their students. The Foundation helps bridge gaps in academic curriculum.  A visitor to the Cathedral will often find local art students with their sketch pads trying to capture the magnificent architectural details of Grace Cathedral.

Public Conversation
The Forum at Grace Cathedral, supported by The Ghiberti Foundation, is a central plank of the Cathedral’s expansive education program and its commitment to hosting public discussions and civic conversations for the city of San Francisco and wider Bay Area community.

The Forum promotes the open discussion of ideas about faith and ethics in relation to the issues of our day. It hosts interviews with leading public figures and panel discussions with politicians, artists, writers, scientists, musicians, theologians and many others. And it collaborates with the leading cultural institutions and universities of the Bay Area to bring the most innovative and interesting thinking to our public space.

Past Forum guests have included Sandra Day O’Connor, Jane Goodall, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Garrison Keillor, Donald Runnicles, Michael Pollan, Richard Rodriguez, General John Abizaid, as well as mayors and members of Congress.

The Forum was relaunched in the Fall of 2011.  Click here to learn about our guests - leading theologians, artists, poets, and politicians - who will be engaging our minds and hearts to think in new ways about the world.

Historic Restoration and Preservation
Grace Cathedral has been designated Historic Landmark #170 in the City and County of San Francisco and is on the Save America's Treasures designation list.  The need for preservation and restoration of this historic landmark is ongoing with average annual expenditures in excess of one million dollars.

To make a donation to The Ghiberti Foundation, please click here.  When completing your online donation, please be sure to select The Ghiberti Foundation as the Program Designation.  Thank you.