WHO WE ARE
The Living Heritage Foundation (LHF), based in Sacramento, CA, was founded by Susheel Bibbs (see below*). OUR FOUNDATION, a 501c3 charity since 2012, fills a special niche in support of the arts and media. We invite donation partners to help us grow -- as we champion the careers and dreams of outstanding artists of any ethnicity who have already taken the time to enrich our programming with works by/about African Americans or women of note. We help those giving artists to soar even higher in their careers and dream projects.
Many grants exist for students and young artists, but not for established professional artists -- those who are beyond regular Young Artist (YAP), Award, and scholarship programs and have little time to write large grants. As successful, perpetual contract workers, they must fund their own travel, lodging, production costs, websites, lessons and coachings, auditions, and special projects--things essential to touring careers during these times. They too need a hand, and LHF stands uniquely to give them that hand with your assistance -- a hand that enriches arts and media programming for us all.
Last year, we offered a Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously to Maestro Michael Morgan and gave fiscal & co-sponsorships, and project-development grants. Now we are seeing the fruits of those projects in the careers we have championed -- Some will involve programming that can be performed both live and seen online; two were celebrated in major concert venues, one in Opera News. We saw 2 of our sponsored films gain their 21st international award (combined) & continued presentation on PBS. Now we prepare to give more for 2023.
*Susheel Bibbs, our Founder-Artistic & Executive Director, is an award-winning classical singer and filmmaker and an Emmy-award-winning Public Broadcasting radio-TV Producer. Bibbs has won 21 recent film-festival awards and is known especially for her award-winning research and touring presentations on two unsung Black heroines (www.susheelbibbs.com, www.thehyerssisterssite.com, www.marypleasant1.com). With this Foundation, Bibbs hopes to assist other professionals who share her passion for unique, enriching, and often underrepresented programming.
OUR BOARD
Susheel Bibbs (listed above) with our Board and esteemed advisors oversee our programs. Board members include -- Sharleen Cooper Cohen (renowned Broadway producer & best-selling author), Iona Morris (acclaimed TV actress & recent director on the TV series Blackish), Lou Ziskind (former S.C.O.R.E. executive and an administrative expert), baritone Robert Sims, Ph.D. (an acclaimed operatic/concert singer-producer), Linda S. Goodrich, Ph.D. (celebrated choreographer & former University arts administrator), Nedra Williams (an award-winning visual artist).
OUR PROGRAMS
Our programs include fiscal sponsorship, project development & travel grants, project mentoring, and special projects that support our mission. Since 2012, we have grown and met program needs with the generous assistance of donors. During Covid, LHF gave important, emergency grants to meet artists' needs along with our usual programs. In 2022, we partnered with acclaimed organizations, such as California Camerata (Sacramento) & Noontime Concerts (San Francisco), to support the dream projects that support our sponsored artists and our mission.
WHAT WE HAVE DONE
LHF has already made an impact internationally. In 2022, we co-presented an acclaimed concert called Majesty of the Spiritual: Heralded by Opera News, curated by baritone Robert Sims, and presented by Noontime Concerts, this concert presented twelve internationally acclaimed operatic stars at Herbst Theater (San Francisco) in a program of operatic concert spirituals. Begun at Lincoln Center in 2019 as Masters of the Spiritual, it will travel to Chicago and Detroit in 2023. LHF also recently helped launch the one-woman musical Jacqueline! (on the late cellist Jacqueline du Pres), which won Toronto's Dora Award and contributed to 2 unique projects to extend the career of the renowned diva, Denyce Graves -- the Black Opera House restoration & Shared Voices projects. In 2022, we restored & premiered a work by William Still with California Camerata in a tribute to John Lewis, and, our 3 short fiscally-sponsored films on African-American women-of-note -- Mary Pleasant (California's Mother of Civil Rights) & The Hyers Sisters (creators of the first American musical)-- won their 21st international award. Two of these films are on PBS through 2025.
We have sent artists to audition in Europe, to sing opera in China, and to make a recording in New Zealand and brought US artists back to the States to perform at the MET, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Spoleto Festival; we have presented international masterclasses by Simon Estes, Osceola Davis, and Gregory Lamar on Zoom -- An amazing record for a small organization. Thanks to your gifts, WE HAVE BECOME SMALL, BUT MIGHTY!!