East Bay Arts Organization Receives Donation From MacKenzie Scott

EAST BAY, CA — Visual and performing arts in the East Bay got a big boost on Tuesday — the East Bay Fund for Artists, an organization that commissions new works by visual and performing artists in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, has been awarded a grant by MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist announced in a blog post.

The exact amount of the organization's gift is not immediately available.

In the past, East Bay Fund for Artists has made grants to Diablo Ballet in Walnut Creek; Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda; symphonies in Oakland, Berkeley, Walnut Creek and Livermore; and dozens more.

Scott's gift is part of a $2.7 billion giving spree by the 51-year-old in which 286 organizations that have been "historically underfunded and overlooked" received sizable charitable donations.

Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, cited the growing wealth gap as a reason for the donations.

In a blog post announcing the donations, Scott said she worked with her new husband, Dan Jewett, a Seattle schoolteacher, and a "constellation of researchers, administrators and advisors" to help give away a portion of her $60 billion fortune.

"In this effort, we are governed by a humbling belief that it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands, and that the solutions are best designed and implemented by others," she said.

Some of the recipients of the donations include groups fighting back against ethnic and religious discrimination, small art organizations catering to communities, artists typically overlooked by large donors, and organizations focused on empowering women and girls.

She also focused her giving on two- and four-year schools whose students come from underserved communities.

Scott also included at least two San Francisco organizations in this round of gifts — San Francisco Community Health Center and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

Read more about East Bay Fund for Artists

See a full list of East Bay Fund for Artists grant recipients

— Alex Nguyen/Patch contributed to this article