Board of Directors
What We Fund
Annual Reports
History of the
Roberts Foundation
Edward (Ned) Constant Roberts was born in Hartford on June 4, 1888. His father, Henry Roberts, served as Governor of the State of Connecticut from 1905-1907. After graduation from Hartford High School and Yale, Class of 1910, Ned pursued a career as an insurance agent and owned a travel agency, but his first love was music. He was an accomplished musician, and played cello in the Hartford Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hartford String Orchestra.
Ann (Sunny) Thorsen Roberts was born in Black Rock, Connecticut on January 25, 1896 to parents who had recently emigrated from Denmark. After graduating from Hartford High School, she studied at The Hartford Art School and worked as a secretary and bookkeeper at an advertising agency. She and Ned married in July 1939 and lived on Prospect Avenue in Hartford. They had no children.
Ned and Sunny shared a love of the arts that kept them involved in many organizations in the Hartford area. Ned served as a trustee of the Julius Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford and was a founder of Goodspeed Opera House. Sunny became a recognized amateur painter and was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts. Ned and Sunny shared a particular love for community theater. Their involvement in the Mark Twain Masquers during the 1940s and 50s included acting in productions, designing and painting sets, as well as serving on the organization’s board. Ned served four terms as board president and Sunny was its longtime treasurer.
In 1964, Ned and Sunny established the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation as a private, special purpose foundation to pursue their support of the arts. Ned died at age 77 in March 1966 and for the next twenty-five years, until her death at age 95 in 1991, Sunny led the activities of the foundation.
Since the Roberts’ passing, the foundation has transformed from a family to a private foundation and has awarded more than $11 million dollars to more than 150 area nonprofits.
Board of Directors
Carrie Hammond – President
Michael L. Campbell
Lisa Lazarus
Lisa M. Curran – Executive Director
Andrew Lattimer – Treasurer
Carlos Hernandez Chavez
Joe Young
Olivia White – Secretary
Dennis Hannigan
Brenda Miller – Arts Representative
The board is comprised of business people and arts professionals as well as arts volunteers and patrons from the Greater Hartford area. We are committed to acting with honesty and integrity and subscribe to the Guiding Principles and Effective Practices established by the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy.
Any board member who also serves on an arts organization board or is an employee of an arts organization must disclose those relationships to the board by submitting our Conflict of Interest form annually or quarterly as new relationships are presented.
Those individuals also must recuse themselves from any votes regarding funding for their respective organizations and, in fact, are not party to discussions about the application under consideration.
The foundation is committed to being accessible and responsive. If you have any questions about our Conflict of Interest Policy or any other governance or management practice, please contact our executive director.
What We Fund
The foundation focuses its support on the creation, presentation and performance of works of art through two grant programs:
- Excellence in the Arts grants: Our quarterly grant program
- Creation of New Work Initiative: Now a quarterly grant program as well
- Equity in the Arts initiative: These grants are awarded at the discretion of the board and not through a competitive grants process.
These programs have different eligibility criteria. Please review each program description carefully to determine whether your organization is eligible for funding.
Capital Requests
The foundation considers capital requests and occasionally makes multi-year grants. In these cases, a short (1-2 page) project description is requested prior to submission of a full application.
Arts Education Requests
Arts education proposals are accepted from arts organizations or organizations providing established arts programing. The proposed arts education program must include a meaningful engagement between the students and the artistic process.
