Bicentennial Initiatives

The entertainer that Forbes ranked as the most charitable celebrity in 2011 will give a benefit concert for the alumni, parents and friends of Hamilton College.

Jon Bon Jovi and The Kings of Suburbia will perform on Wednesday, Dec. 5, at the Best Buy Theater in New York’s Times Square. Attendees can expect to hear Jon Bon Jovi hits, as well as classic rock and roll songs. The evening will feature an eclectic set list performed by one of America’s most popular singer-songwriters.

In its bicentennial year, Hamilton has broken all previous philanthropic records, raising $42.5 million in 2011-12 versus the past record total, $30.8 million in 2006-07. This year’s success pushed the three-year Bicentennial Initiatives campaign beyond its original goal of $117 million 16 months ahead of its scheduled conclusion. In response, the Board of Trustees in June raised the goal to $133 million.

On the eve of the completion of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, groundbreaking for the College’s new theatre and studio arts center was celebrated on Friday, July 20. The theatre and studio arts center is part of an arts complex that includes the Wellin Museum of Art, the Molly Root House and a revitalized pond and landscaping.

Hamilton College’s Bicentennial Initiatives campaign exceeded its $117 million goal 16 months ahead of its scheduled conclusion on June 30, 2013. The funds raised in the first two years of this brief three-year effort now surpass $119 million.

Bicentennial Initiatives, a campaign to raise $117 million primarily for three Hamilton College priorities, has reached its goal 16 months ahead of schedule.

In the first half of the 2011-12 academic year, Hamilton College broke all fund-raising records for a six-month period, said Vice President for Communications and Development Richard Tantillo, and the college is on pace to have its best philanthropic year ever when the fiscal year closes on June 30.

Hamilton’s Board of Trustees voted at their December meeting to proceed with design construction documents for a new theatre and studio arts building.

Hamilton has received notification from the SunUp Foundation of a $16 million donation, the single most generous act of philanthropy in the college’s history. Edward ’46 and Virginia Taylor, directors for the foundation, recently informed the college of the commitment, which will establish Hamilton’s largest financial aid endowment and provide support for faculty research in the sciences and new arts facilities.

Summer construction is officially under way on the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, a 30,000-square-foot museum and teaching facility to be located at the corner of College Hill and Griffin Roads.