The Entertainment Community Fund (ECF) received a $5 million donation from Tony Award-winning producer John Gore via the John Gore Foundation. (Broadway News is a subsidiary of the John Gore Organization, of which Gore is the chairman and CEO.) The gift will be allocated to the Hollywood Arts Collective, a $135 million housing and community arts project, naming the complex for Emmy-, Grammy-, Oscar- and Tony-winning actor Rita Moreno.
The Hollywood Arts Collective will include two buildings: the Rita Moreno Arts Building and the Cicely Tyson Residential Building (named for the Tony-winning and Oscar-nominated actor), the latter of which will provide 151 affordable housing units.
The Rita Moreno Arts Building will house the new Glorya Kaufman Performing Arts Theater, provide a home base for LA Contemporary Exhibitions and serve as the Western regional headquarters for the ECF.
A naming ceremony for both buildings took place on June 22, 2022.
The full complex will offer “affordable space for arts and entertainment professionals to live, work and create,” according to a statement from the Fund. The organization aims to raise an additional $16 million in order to complete construction by fall 2024.
As longtime advocates for the ECF and its mission, Gore and Moreno both received the Fund’s Medal of Honor in 2019.
“It’s an honor to support the Fund in their tireless work of being a safety net for those in need in the performing arts — and even more meaningful to do so in recognition of the contributions to our industry by Rita Moreno, my fellow honoree at the 2019 Medal of Honor ceremony,” said Gore in a statement.
The ECF provides housing, emergency financial assistance, career counseling, mental health services and more to professionals in every sector of arts and entertainment. Since May 1, the Fund has raised more than $7 million to support film and television workers. Large donations have been received from notable industry figures such as Seth MacFarlane, ECT chair Annette Bening, Greg Berlanti, Rachel Bloom, Rosanne Cash, Suzanne Collins, Cap Preyor, Minnie Driver, Vince Gilligan, Lynn Nottage, Michelle Pfeiffer, David E. Kelley, Daniel Radcliffe, Shonda Rhimes, Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw as well as the Katie McGrath & J.J. Abrams Family Foundation.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the awards Cicely Tyson had won. This has been corrected.
