Connecting the Dots

Jenrette Foundation to fund $1 million in grants in 2025

As we pivot off an inspiring year of growth and progress in 2024, I am thrilled to share exciting news about the Jenrette Foundation's grant recipients in 2025. Thanks to your continued support, and our board’s careful stewardship of our resources, we are proud to announce 42 grant awards that will help advance education, innovation, and stewardship in the fields of historic preservation, decorative arts, and historic landscapes—and we’re looking to cross the $1 million mark by the end of the calendar year.

We have selected a diverse group of institutions whose work aligns with our mission to protect and celebrate our cultural heritage. In the first quarter alone, our grantees include the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to fund interns who will work on research and policy projects, as well as Historic New England to underwrite a new Jenrette Conservation Fellow — providing advanced professional training in conservation to a postgraduate over the course of a year. They also include Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks to establish two summer fellowships in garden and landscape history and design.

Throughout the year we'll announce all of our grantees, but for now, here’s the full list of Q1 grants:

• Advisory Council on Historic Preservation: Supporting an important internship program to conduct research on a range of issues from policy to practice

• American Friends of Attingham: Supporting a scholarship for 2025 Attingham Summer School

• Architectural League of New York: Establishing an historic preservation mentorship program and join the organization’s Council of Benefactors     

• Association for Preservation Technology: General support and sponsorship of an educational webinar series

• Association for State and Local History: Sponsorship of 2025 Historic House Museum Summit 

• Bard Graduate Center: Supporting school’s scholarship fund

• The Cultural Landscape Foundation: Expanding the organization’s What’s Out There® guide to the Hudson Valley to include new locations through surveying, research, and documentation. 

• Dumbarton Oaks: Funding two summer fellowships in the subjects of garden and landscape history and design

• Historic Natchez Foundation: Supporting a week-long tour of area properties, landscapes, and collections  

• Historic New England: Underwrite a new Jenrette Conservation Fellow for one year of materials conservation work in the decorative arts

• Institute for Classical Art and Architecture: Supporting the Jenrette Preservation Lecture series, scholarships for students and emerging professionals to attend courses and workshops, as well as supporting ICAA’s Awards for Emerging Excellence in the Classical Tradition

• Lyndhurst: Supports a site-based exhibition on A.J. Davis, as well as an associated exhibit catalog and symposium       

• Maine Preservation: Supporting a nine-week summer student intern to conduct hands-on preservation work and advocacy work  

• Menokin: Supporting student participation in stabilization and restoration efforts on an innovative structural solution to interpreting a treasured Virginia property

• National Building Museum: Establish two Jenrette Interns in the summer of 2025 to assist with cataloguing and conducting provenance research of architectural fragments

• New York Review of Architecture: Supporting part-time editorial interns for this nonprofit mainstay of design and practice coverage                                                                                            

• Preservation North Carolina: Funding summer interns to focus on monitoring easements held by the organization and supporting a meeting of the directors of local preservation organizations   

• Prestwould: Continuing the tradition of Dick Jenrette’s support for this historic property

• Smithsonian Folklife Festival on DC’s National Mall: Supporting this year’s theme of “Youth in Preserving Culture,” with an emphasis on preserving historic trades in service to the nation’s built infrastructure                                                           

• University of Pennsylvania: Supporting summer internship program for students                                                 

This year will bring other events that underscore the Jenrette Foundation's focus on providing a variety of educational opportunities at its properties such as the expanded Thompson Fellowship program in decorative arts at Millford in the spring and Edgewater in the fall. We’re also expanding our “student days” at our properties to provide students with access to the expert craftspeople who restore our properties—transforming them into teaching laboratories. Of course, our concerts and community events will continue, as well, to complement our regularly scheduled tours throughout the year. Stewardship has so many dimensions and the Jenrette Foundation is committed to reflecting as many of them as possible in the spirit of our founder for the benefit of our partners and for the public.

Sincerely,

Benjamin Prosky

President, Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation

bprosky@jenrette.org

January 2025