‘Driven by excellence’: Roberts Foundation supports the arts
- Tracey Weiss
- Aug 29
- 5 min read
by Tracey Weiss
Contributing Editor
Unassuming in its pursuit, the Roberts Foundation for the Arts is considered one of the strongest supporters of the arts community in Greater Hartford.
“We fund everything: symphony, theater, dance, choral groups, museums, heritage homes,” said Executive Director Lisa Curran. “We’re driven by excellence in the arts, always looking for the upper-tier performance.”
Once known as the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation, the organization changed its name on its 60th birthday in 2024. It offers three major grants in Hartford and towns that are geographically close to the city: Bloomfield, Farmington, Newington, East Hartford, New Britain, South Windsor, West Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor.
The Excellence in the Arts Grant is a quarterly base grant for programming. Under this program “we prefer to find a specific project and fund it,” Curran said. For instance, “a play at Theaterworks or an exhibit at the New Britain Museum of American Art.”
The Creation of New Work Grant is a quarterly program as well. According to Curran, it’s a one-year competitive grant for special projects with new artists to do something different, such as a “Real Art Ways installation or a new composer to write a new piece or a new play. It’s important that we remember the classics and create new pieces and give locals a chance.”
“Over the years we have been so happy with the artists chosen. It’s great to see their careers take off,” she added.
The Joyce C. Willis Equity in the Arts Award is a newer competitive grant that supports a partnership between a grantee arts organization and an artist of color to foster new collaborations and fulfill the foundation’s mission to support and encourage excellence in the arts.
Willis was a lifelong member of the Hartford community and a member of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra’s board of directors. She worked for the Hartford Times newspaper and The Hartford insurance group before retiring.
She loved African American Art and was a founding member of the Amistad Foundation, now the Amistad Center for Art & Culture in Hartford. She served on many boards, including the Amistad Center, Hartford Symphony and Roberts Foundation.
She was also a charter member of the Black Giving Circle Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, now known as the Greater Hartford Gives Foundation.
Willis passed away in June 2020. Curran said the Roberts Foundation fund in her honor was established in December of that year “to honor her. Initially, we awarded the Amistad Center, Hartford Symphony and Hartford Stage each $150,000 over two years. They brought in a new director, composer and pianist. Those artists also went out to the community and did a lot of outreach” through community initiatives.
The Roberts Foundation has a $9 million endowment and spends $400,000 (5 percent) annually. “We try to help with grants for as many as we can,” she said.
Qualifications are simple for any organization looking to apply for money. It must be in Greater Hartford and a registered 501c3 nonprofit organization.
“We look at the budget and what they are asking us to fund,” Curran said. “We look at audience size, too. We like to know a nonprofit is building an audience.”
The board meets to vote on the recipients, which is not as simple as it may seem.
“It’s hard,” Curran added. “It’s often like picking a favorite child.”
Since its inception the foundation has awarded more than $11 million to more than 150 nonprofits.
“They were there in the early days and the youth of our company,” Geoffrey Sheehan, the founder of the Capital Classics Theater Company, said.
Every summer it puts on the Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival at the University of Saint Joseph and has built a reputation for offering top-notch productions that bring thousands to see the plays.
“Their financial support and approval means everything. They’re very thorough and want details on what you’re doing. Having their name attached to our projects is great. We’re proud to be associated with them and happy there is an organization like them that supports the arts,” Sheehan said.
The Roberts were a fascinating couple,” Curran said.
Edward Ned (Constant) Roberts and Ann (Sunny) Thorsen Roberts “met late in life. They met at a production by the Mark Twain Masquers. They met at the production of ‘Our Town.’ When they married, she moved in with him and his mom at their Prospect Avenue house.”
She loved to paint. Ned kept his cello in the bathtub. They had a little dog and made a highchair for him so he could dine with them.
“They were very colorful characters,” Curran said.
“Back then, the Masquers would perform all over. The couple decided to find a permanent home for them, but it took several years. Sadly, Ned died very suddenly, but it turned out he left $2 million to start a foundation. Sunny took the mantle and found Kingswood Oxford, where they were already looking to build a theater.”
That theater, named the Roberts Theater, was built.
“The Masquers performed there for a few years. It was never finalized when they could use it and then they broke up,” Curran said.
Sunny lived in the house and kept the costumes from the Masquers there, but a fire destroyed the house. She moved to the Mountain Commons condominium complex on Mountain Road in West Hartford and ran the foundation on her own from there for many years.
When she died, the foundation became privately run. Curran fondly recalled the special celebration they created for the 50th birthday in 2014.
“We commissioned a play about the Roberts and we asked Jacques Lamarre to write it. He did an incredible job. He based his play, ‘Ned & Sunny: A Hartford Love Story,’ on the structure of ‘Our Town’ – boy dies, life goes on and she runs the foundation. The play was beautiful.”
Theaterworks founder and Director Rob Ruggiero directed it. Married actors Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry played the Roberts. Columnist and radio personality Colin McEnroe played the role of stage manager in the performance. His parents were good friends with the real-life Roberts.
“As our narrator, Colin was our own Hal Holbrook,” who had played the role of stage manager in the Broadway production. “We performed it at the Roberts Theater,” Curran said. “There was not a dry eye in the house.”
This year, look for the Roberts Foundation name to be mentioned as one of the sponsors of events celebrating America’s 250th birthday. The Harriet Beecher Stowe Hartford Bonanza (the city’s Independence Day celebration), Riverfront Recapture, Theaterworks and more will be part of the festivities. NL
For more information go to therobertsfoundation.org.