Sara Lee Corporation
Chicago, Illinois
 
Bestowed 1995

Sara Lee Corporation supports the arts through the Sara Lee Foundation, which was established in 1981, and through its operating divisions worldwide. In 1994, the foundation's support to the arts totaled $5.4 million.

Sara Lee has benefited the arts, business and the community by:

• Supporting both established and emerging arts organizations in Chicago where the company is headquartered. Since 1980 Sara Lee has supported The Art Institute of Chicago through operating grants and exhibition support for seven major exhibitions viewed by more than 900,000 individuals. Since the 1980s, Sara Lee has underwritten exhibitions and programs in the Chicago Historical Society, has supported programs at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company and has sponsored productions of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, all in Chicago, Illinois. Sara Lee also provides general operating support to some of the newer Chicago-area arts organizations.
• Supporting the arts in its operating communities, such as underwriting scholarships to the North Carolina School of the Arts, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and sponsoring the exhibition “North Carolina Women Making History” in the North Carolina Museum of History, Raleigh, North Carolina. In Tennessee, the company sponsored the exhibition “Duncan Phillips Collects: Paris Between the Wars” in the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis.
• Matching employee gifts to arts and cultural organizations through its Matching Grants Program. Employee gifts of up to $1,000 is matched on a two-for-one basis. The remainder, up to $10,000 per year, is matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
• Providing significant product and in-kind donations to arts groups throughout the United States.
• Maintaining a corporate art collection of more than 500 painting and sculptures, including works by Pissarro, Picasso and Degas. The company has published four books about the collection and has loaned works to the Reynolda House Museum, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee.