Yawkey Foundation Arts & Culture Support

The Foundation’s relationship with the Museum of Science dates back more than 30 years and includes decades of support for education programs for school and youth groups, enabling thousands of children to visit the museum each year. The thousands of children and families who have been positively impacted by this partnership were the motivation behind the Foundation’s decision to provide a Transformational Capital grant of $10 million for the construction of the Charles River Gallery at the Museum of Science. This permanent exhibit connects the two major wings of the museum and highlights the engineering decisions that impact the Charles River and the animals that live in the natural river environment.

The Yawkey Foundation is honored to celebrate nearly nine decades of partnership with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum through support of the Black Baseball Initiative and “The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball” exhibit. Since Tom Yawkey’s first visit to Cooperstown in 1939, the Yawkeys and the Foundation perpetuating their legacy have consistently provided support for a wide range of The Hall’s projects: a donation of bleacher seating from Fenway Park for Doubleday Field, construction of the Grandstand Theater and the Library expansion, ongoing artifacts conservation efforts, and collection storage, cataloguing, and digitalization to expand access to educational and programming initiatives.

With a relationship that dates back to 1991, the Yawkey Foundation has funded field trips and school visiting programs at the New England Aquarium. In 2011, the Aquarium started work to restore and enhance the Giant Ocean Tank. This work included replacing the tank’s 52 windows, repairing the concrete base, replacing the fabricated coral reef, and modifying the plumbing to improve the conditions for the animals. The renovations involved enhancing the exterior of the tank with improved accessibility and lighting which were supported by a Transformational Grant of $2 million from the Yawkey Foundation. The top level of the Giant Ocean Tank, now called the Yawkey Coral Reef Center, includes a seven-tank exhibit gallery that offers a closeup look at animals that are not easily seen or understood on the reef.

The BOCH Center received a $500,000 Transformational Capital grant from the Yawkey Foundation for the Wang Theatre Elevator Restoration Project. The project preserved all architectural details and provide dcritical safety upgrades for the Theatre’s primary elevator while offering access to all five floors for the first time in its 100 year history, including the Lower Lobby and the newly established Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame and the Cultural Heroes Exhibit.

The International African American Museum received a grant of $1 million from the Yawkey Foundation in support of the Museum’s inaugural year of operations and installation and development of the Gullah Geeche exhibition gallery. This gallery is dedicated to promoting awareness and understanding about the Gullah Geeche people – descendants of Africans who were enslaved on the rice, indigo, and Sea Island cotton plantations of the lower Atlantic coast. This partnership is a meaningful complement to the ongoing Gullah Geeche archeological research which has been underway for decades at the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center.

Yawkey Foundation was a founding supporter of the Jackie Robinson Museum in New York City, celebrating the life and legacy of Jackie Robinson. Yawkey Foundation has had a longstanding relationship with The Jackie Robinson Foundation, and this decades-long engagement led to the $3 million gift in 2006. This partnership was commemorated with the naming of the Yawkey Sports Gallery at the Museum’s opening in 2022.