UNC School of Arts gets $6 million

PJ staff report | April 13, 2011

0 comments

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- The University of North Carolina School of the Arts has received a $6 million grant from The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust to endow a program for artist-scholars.

The gift, the biggest one-time private gift ever to the school, will endow the annual William R. Kenan Jr. Excellence Awards program, which pays for tuition, fees, room and board for four years of undergraduate study.

First presented in 2006, the awards are funded by a $1 million grant in 2005 from The William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust, a $225,000 grant in 2009 from The William R. Kenan Jr. Fund for the Arts, and a $250,000 grant in 2010 from The William R. Kenan Jr. Fund for the Arts.

The school makes five awards a year, with 25 students named Kenan Excellence Scholars over the past five years.

Since 2006, the school has added nearly $14 million to its endowment, including five new $1 million endowed professorships.

The endowment now totals $29.9 million, a total that reflects the ups and downs of the economy in recent years but does not include all pledges made so far.

Comment on this article

• Email this page