partnership it has developed for teaching engineering
design.
Scientific Education
To help
develop doctoral and postdoctoral science and engineering at six
private universities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the Foundation
granted $112,000 for program planning. The universities seek to
improve the competence of their science and engineering departments
and to utilize the untapped teaching capacity of the Graduate
Research Center of the Southwest.
For a
full-dress review of the teaching of the mathematical sciences and
their use by industry and government, the Conference Board of the
Mathematical Sciences received $155,000. The field has grown
dramatically in recent years—in research, new curricula, and
enrollments. Another grant was made to the American Institute of
Physics, to study research needs in the history, philosophy, and
sociology of recent physics.
For planning
of a new museum of science and technology using the Hall of Science
at the New York World's Fair site as a nucleus, the Foundation
granted $200,000. Other grants involving World's Fair structures
assisted a study of the possibility of using the United States
Pavilion building as a center for cooperative activities by
Associated Universities, a group of Eastern institutions; and
performance testing of buildings under demolition, to provide data
for research engineers and architects.
A complete
list of 1966 grants in the Science and Engineering program beings
on page 79; projects, page 115; appropriations, page 65.
Humanities and the Arts
Symphony
Orchestras
Sixty-one
orchestras (listed on page 81) were selected for grants totaling
$80.2 million in the Foundation's program to consolidate the
nation's rich orchestral resources. The aims are to advance the
quality of orchestras by enabling more musicians to devote their
major energies to performance, to attract more young talent to
orchestra careers by raising the income and prestige of players,
and to extend the range of orchestras' services to larger and more
diversified audiences.
About
three-fourths of the funds are endowments that the orchestras must
match within five years with funds raised from other sources.
Interest on the endowment portion will be paid over the next ten
years, and the principal will be distributed in 1976.
Following
announcement of the program in 1965, the Foundation interviewed
hundreds of orchestra representatives and examined the ten-year
plans of many groups. While the exploration confirmed the heavy
financial requirements of most orchestras, the future of the
nation's musical enterprise—given greater financial
stability—appeared promising. More musicians are being
employed for longer seasons. Many smaller orchestras have realistic
plans to achieve major status. New levels of quality and diversity
are in view—more programs for children; traveling concerts
for audiences in a wider circle; expanded collaboration with ballet
companies, choral groups, and operas; and additional training,
rehearsal, and performance for young musicians.
Other
Artistic Resources
The
Foundation made grants for further development of other artistic
areas in which it has long been active—ballet, residential
nonprofit theater, and opera.
Three ballet
companies received grants totaling $1,250,000 to insure their
continuing momentum as major new forces on the American dance
scene—the Robert Joffrey Ballet, the Pennsylvania Ballet
Company, and the Boston Ballet; each had received
Foundation