New York has always been more than a geographical destination. It represents the promise of a better life for immigrants seeking refuge. It’s a cultural beacon for artists and performers. And it offers endless opportunities for diverse groups of people to form new communities around shared interests. Mary Duke Biddle, who considered New York her second home, believed that the Empire state and its largest city embodied some of humanity’s best impulses—compassion, determination, and creative expression. In 2007, the Foundation awarded more than $204,400to 74 grantees in New York that embrace these qualities.

New York City has longed served as the point of entry for people coming from other shores. Through its Refugee Youth Program, the International Rescue Committee, Inc. works with public schools and local organizations to help recently-arrived children and young adults prepare for academic success. A Foundation grant helped support these efforts, which include a summer readiness program comprising classes in English, math, and literacy, as well as recreational and acclimation activities throughout the city.

At Harlem School of the Arts, a Foundation grant supported another preparatory initiative, this one for advancedlevel artists and performers in middle and high school. The College Prep Summer Academy allows these talented youth to gain additional training and mentoring in one discipline— music, dance, theater, or visual arts—the better to guide them toward accomplished careers. Similarly, collaboration between the venerable Martha Graham School and the New York City Department of Education introduces middle and high schoolers to modern dance. In particular, a Foundation grant strengthened the partnership between Martha Graham School and Talent Unlimited High School, an interdisciplinary, culturally diverse community of students from all five of the city’s boroughs. Cultural color: Yasser Darwish performs at Brooklyn Maqam Arab Music Festival. ETIENNE FROSSARD

In addition to encouraging the development of a new generation of artists, the Foundation also recognizes the importance of developing a new generation of audiences. We are pleased to fund the New York Philharmonic’s commitment to this important endeavor through its school partnership program. Performing artists and classroom teachers work together to spark students’ interest in musical literacy and cultural history through live performances, composition exercises, and focused listening.

New dramatic voices are being nurtured through Youngblood, the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s collective of emerging professional playwrights under the age of thirty. A Foundation grant helped facilitate a number of services for these young men and women, including professional outreach and opportunities for production and publication.

At the same time, we recognize that traditionally marginalized groups of people have important perspectives to offer as well. That’s why we made a grant to the NY Writers Coalition Inc., which provides free and low-cost creative writing workshops throughout New York City. The program encourages people from diverse backgrounds to share their stories in a respectful and accepting environment and, in the process, become part of a larger community.

Finally, Foundation grants helped make possible a range of multicultural activities. For example, the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine presented "Songs of the Spirit: A Musical Celebration of Unity Among Diverse Faiths and Cultures." The traveling series combines "contemporary popular music and spoken word performances with traditional sacred music of diverse faiths and cultures…[focusing on] the shared spiritual ideals of an interconnected, interdependent world." Participating artists ranged from the Tibetan Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery to African-American singer Odetta to the South African jazz musician Hugh Masekala. Call on me: Justin Hines, a teaching artist in New York Philharmonic School Partnership Program, at Manhattan’s P.S. 108. MICHAEL DIVITO

A musical melting pot of another sort took place during the Brooklyn Maqam Arab Music Festival. Presented by the Brooklyn Arts Council, with support from the Foundation and other sponsors, the series featured local musicians, bands, and dancers presenting folk, classical, popular, and fusion forms of music from Egypt, Yemen, Israel, Tunisia, Palestine, Iraq, Morocco, Syria, and Lebanon.