US dinner party raises $400,000 for Lyric Theatre Belfast
Howard Lake | 18 January 2010 | News
A fundraising dinner held at the Manhattan home of Loretta Brennan Glucksman, Chairman of the American Ireland, has raised nearly $400,000 for the Lyric Theatre in Belfast.
The dinner was hosted by Lyric patron Liam Neeson and special guests included actors Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn and Ciarán Hinds. Many leading philanthropists from the Irish American business community also attended.
Meryl Streep also hosted a major fundraising dinner in 2008 for another Belfast arts project, The MAC.
The theatre is trying to raise a total of £800,000 by June of this year to complete its capital campaign and secure a £500,000 challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation in Michigan. The total cost of the new theatre will be £17 million.
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Support for the project has come from a wide range of sources, including the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council, private trusts and foundations, corporate sponsors and individual philanthropists.
Loretta Brennan Glucksman is well known for her philanthropic work supporting Irish causes and she and her late husband have had a long association with the American Ireland Fund.
More Liam Neeson fundraising
- Star war on Aids (14 November 2000)
- Ireland Funds gala raises $3 million (19 May 2018)
- Stars unite in film to launch this year’s Stand Up To Cancer campaign (3 October 2018)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.