$500,000 Carson gift to Benefit Nebraska Arts

By Ashley Hasselbroek
World-Herald Staff Writer
 Reprinted with permission from the Omaha World Herald

The Nebraska Cultural Endowment is $500,000 closer to its $5 million fund-raising goal, thanks to former talk-show host Johnny Carson.

Carson, a former Norfolk resident and a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, recently confirmed a donation of $500,000 to the cultural endowment in response to a written request from the endowment’s board of directors.

“We were surprised, excited, and we are extremely grateful,” said Bob Nefsky, board president.

The endowment was formed 1n 1998, when the Nebraska Legislature set aside $5 million for the arts and humanities. Income from the endowment is available to fund programs for the Nebraska Humanities Council and the Nebraska Arts Council when matched by private donations.

So far, the cultural endowment has raised $2.37 million in donations, pledges and bequests, which includes Carson’s donation as well as a $450,000 challenge grant last year from the National Endowment for the Humanities (a 3-to-1 grant requiring a match of $1.35 million by July 31,2 005).

The Nebraska Humanities Council funds programs that explore Nebraska’s heritage, and the Nebraska Arts Council provides grant support for artists and arts organizations.

Carson has given substantial gifts to other Nebraska organizations, including $500,000 to the Carson Regional Radiation Center at Lutheran Community Hospital in Norfolk in 1994; $100,000 to the Norfolk Arts Center in 2000; $100,000 to the Norfolk Senior Citizens Center in 2000; and $75,000 for a skate park in Corning, Neb., in March of last year.

Carson, who retired from his 30-year career as host of “The Tonight Show” in May 1992, has won six Emmy Awards, received the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Governors’ Awards in 1980 and other awards such as the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1992) and the Kennedy Center Lifetime Achievement Award (1993).

Nefsky said Carson’s $500,000 donation is his first to the cultural endowment. Nefsky said there is no deadline for the cultural endowment campaign, but organizers hope the money can be raised as quickly as possible.

“The quicker we raise it, the quicker we can provide needed income for the arts and humanities in Nebraska,” Nefsky said.