The Nathan Cummings Foundation was endowed by
Nathan Cummings (1896–1985), founder of
Consolidated Foods
The Sara Lee Corporation was an American consumer-goods company based in Downers Grove, Illinois. It had operations in more than 40 countries and sold its products in over 180 countries. Its international operations were headquartered in Utrecht ...
, later renamed
Sara Lee
Sara may refer to:
Arts, media and entertainment Film and television
* Sara (1992 film), ''Sara'' (1992 film), 1992 Iranian film by Dariush Merhjui
* Sara (1997 film), ''Sara'' (1997 film), 1997 Polish film starring Bogusław Linda
* Sara (2010 ...
. Cummings was also a prominent
art collector
A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...
and supporter of
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
causes.
In his lifetime, Cummings made contributions to hospitals, universities, and the arts.
His endowment created the Nathan Cummings Arts Center at
Stanford University and the Joanne and Nathan Cummings Art Center at
Connecticut College
Connecticut College (Conn College or Conn) is a private liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. It is a residential, four-year undergraduate institution with nearly all of its approximately 1,815 students living on campus. The college w ...
in New London. He made major contributions to the
National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, to the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
, New York, and to the
Art Institute of Chicago. The foundation received most of his estate (then estimated at $200 million) upon his death in 1985.
Shareholder activism
The Nathan Cummings Foundation is one of eight institutional investors represented by the Shareholder Rights Projects, which worked to present shareholder declassification proposals in
S&P 500
The Standard and Poor's 500, or simply the S&P 500, is a stock market index tracking the stock performance of 500 large companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. It is one of the most commonly followed equity indices. As of ...
annual meetings.
References
External links
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Arts foundations based in the United States
Arts organizations based in New York City
Organizations established in 1949
1949 establishments in the United States