For its longstanding commitment to the arts in the communities it serves, Bank of America will be recognized with the Founders Award as the Business Committee for the Arts, Inc. (BCA) and FORBES Magazine present the 2000 Business in the Arts Awards at The Art Institute of Chicago on October 5. The Founders Award is a Hall of Fame designation given to companies for their exceptional long-term leadership and their commitment to alliances with the arts.

Bank of America has been investing in major and emerging arts organizations nationwide for more than 90 years to help create strong, vibrant and diverse communities, to increase access to the arts - especially among children - and to build future audiences.

"The arts are critical to the economic vitality of our cities, and are a catalyst for learning what is beautiful about the human spirit," said Hugh L. McColl, Jr., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Bank of America. "For this reason, Bank of America has been a major supporter of the arts throughout its history."

Bank of America has provided a number of major grants to arts projects throughout the country, including $3 million to Port Discovery, a children's museum in Baltimore; $1.5 million to The Museum of Modern Art in New York for the "Jackson Pollock" retrospective; $1 million to the Miami Performing Arts Center; $2 million toward the construction of the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, TX; and $5 million to the new Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. In 1999 the Bank made a $100,000 grant to support the construction of the new Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMOCA) in Arizona. The Bank also made a $1 million commitment to the Nashville Symphony for the Symphony 2000 endowment campaign, in addition to sponsoring its Pops Series.

In 1998, to help revitalize Center City, the arts and cultural district in Charlotte, the Bank provided nearly $17 million for four initiatives: a new addition to The Mint Museum of Art; The Visual Arts Organization/Artist Community, a renovated church with 19 studios in which artists work individually and collaboratively; a commissioned interior mosaic by Keith Goddard and exterior interactive sound and light sculptures by Christopher Janney for the Seventh Street Station; a multi-level parking garage; and the commission of North Carolina artist Ben Long to create his fourth public fresco in Center City.

To encourage greater appreciation and participation in the arts among young people, the Bank sponsors the Bank of America Casual Classic Series, a program of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and it subsidizes tickets so that orchestra students in middle school through college may attend Atlanta Symphony performances and demonstration workshops. During 1999 Bank of America awarded $250,000 in grants to grassroots not-for-profit organizations in 50 U.S. cities to support arts and culture programs for disadvantaged youth. Its Volunteer Grants program was developed to recognize and encourage volunteerism among its employees. This program provides unrestricted grants to not-for-profit organizations in which employees have committed substantial volunteer time.

The Business in the Arts Awards have been presented annually for more than three decades to recognize businesses and business executives throughout the country for developing exemplary partnerships with the arts. Other 2000 Business in the Arts Award winners are: Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, New Jersey; Sears, Roebuck and Co., Hoffman Estates, Illinois; Shugoll Research, Bethesda, Maryland; St. Petersburg Times, St. Petersburg, Florida; Time Warner Inc., New York, New York; Wieden + Kennedy, Portland, Oregon; WestShore Plaza, Tampa, Florida; William R. Hough & Co., St. Petersburg, Florida; and Sondra A. Healy, Chairman of Turtle Wax, Inc., Chicago, Illinois.

The Business Committee for the Arts, Inc. (BCA), founded in 1967 by David Rockefeller, is a national not-for-profit organization that brings business and the arts together. It provides businesses of all sizes with the services and resources necessary to develop and advance partnerships with the arts that benefit business, the arts and the community, including professional consulting services and specialized workplace programs.

(This news release was originally issued by BCA, and they are responsible for its contents.)

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