Canadian couple donates $5 million to Royal Conservatory of Music
TORONTO - Ian Ihnatowycz, president and chief executive officer of Acuity Funds Ltd. and Acuity Investment Management Inc., and his wife, optometrist Dr. Marta Witer, have donated $5 million to the Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM).
The announcement was made on November 17 by Florence Minz, chair of the RCM Board of Directors.
As noted on the RCM website, the gift, made to the RCM's Building National Dreams Campaign, will provide funds to advance the construction of the RCM's new home, preserve the conservatory's heritage building and fund a special Piano Scholars Program, designed for the highest levels of piano study.
In recognition of their generous contribution, the historic wing of the Conservatory's TELUS Center for Performance and Learning, i.e., 124-year-old McMaster Hall and 104-year-old Mazzoleni Hall, will now collectively be known as Ihnatowycz Hall.
In addition, the piano program of the Royal Conservatory of Music Artists Diploma program will be known as the Ian Ihnatowycz Piano Scholars Program.
It was also announced that Mr. Ihnatowycz will be joining the RCM board of directors.
Both Mr. Ihnatowycz and Dr. Witer are RCM alumni and acknowledge the conservatory's role in their music education as youths and that of two of the couple's three children.
Mr. Ihnatowycz noted that the gift affirms the couple's "deeply held view that the arts are essential means for the social, intellectual and spiritual development of all people. Great civilizations are inevitably defined by their artistic legacy and the programs of the Royal Conservatory have helped some of our greatest performing artists to emerge and add a new dimension to the lives of millions of people."
In acknowleding the magnanimous gift, Dr. Peter Simon, president of the Royal Conservatory of Music, stated that "Ian and Marta recognize the conservatory's immense impact on the cultural and social life of our nation. ... Their generosity will help us expand the reach of our programs, benefiting hundreds of thousands of students across this country, and realize our bold new vision to become the heart of creative education in Canada."
As noted in the Globe and Mail article "Donation sounds right note" by James Adams (November 19), the Ihnatowycz-Witer gift comes at a crucial time in the cultural life of Toronto, because the RCM is one of six major arts institutions that are trying to complete fund-raising for ambitious capital campaigns launched in 2002.
The Ihnatowycz-Witer gift brings the RCM Building National Dreams Campaign total to $68 million in an $85 million campaign.
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Mr. Ihnatowycz, a Toronto investor and fund manager, founded Acuity Funds Ltd. and Acuity Investment Management Inc. in 1990.
Acuity, among the fastest growing firms in the industry, provides discretionary investment management services for individual, institutional, pension and mutual fund clients.
As one of Canada's leading practitioners of sustainable investing, Acuity represents Canada as an advisor to the United Nations on the integration of environmental, social and governance factors within investment management.
Under Mr. Ihnatowycz's stewardship, Acuity's assets under management have grown to $7 billion.
Dr. Witer has worked in private practice as a doctor of optometry for more than 25 years. She is a past president of the Vision Institute of Canada and served on the Board of Directors of the Ontario Association of Optometrists.
Dr. Witer and Mr. Ihnatowycz have been involved in numerous education and community initiatives.
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Founded in 1886, the Royal Conservatory of Music is the largest and oldest independent arts educator in Canada, serving more than 500,000 active participants each year. Based in Toronto, it offers extraordinary opportunities for learning and personal development through music and the arts in all Canadian provinces and increasingly in a number of international settings.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 18, 2005, No. 51, Vol. LXXIII
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