From modern dance performances to dramatic interpretations of Shakespeare, from the innocent wonder of elementary school students watching a play to the sophisticated ambitions of documentary filmmakers, the marriage of education and the arts produces a wide-open landscape of possibilities for creative expression. Mary Duke Biddle was a lifelong patron of the arts, and the years she spent living in New York exposed her to the excitement and innovation of that city's cultural offerings. As a geographical focus for The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, New York continues to provide ample opportunities for the current trustees to endorse the work of organizations that would resonate with her interests even today.

A number of Foundation grants supported artistic endeavors that encourage participants to look outside their everyday circumstances. The Ballet Ambassadors program, Ballet Beyond the Schools, offers children living in homeless shelters an opportunity to dance in productions of ballet classics; the Foundation is providing support for a production of The Nutcracker as presented by children from the Prospect Family Inn in the Bronx. Another child-focused initiative, "Gods, Myths and Mortals: Discover Ancient Greece," is a hands-on exhibit at the Children's Museum of Manhattan. The 4,000-square foot exhibit encourages youngsters to explore the roots of Western culture through such activities as "following" Odysseus on his journey home from the Trojan War. Through the Fractured Atlas Production program, Music Gives Life, senior citizens facing loneliness, depression, or illness can find renewed vigor and companionship through practicing and performing with fellow musicians of all skill levels.

Foundation grants have historically supported emerging artists, too. A grant to the National Music Theater Network provides support to emerging composers, lyricists, producers, and performers through its Next Link Project. And with generous support for internships and scholarships - to the School of American Ballet, the Abingdon Theatre Company, and the Isadora Duncan Foundation for Contemporary Dance, for example - tomorrow's stars of the stage may be getting the break they need to turn a dream into a lifelong profession.

Bearing witness to the human condition can be captured in a variety of ways. The documentary approach lends itself particularly well to telling the stories of individuals who have overcome hardship. A foundation grant to the Auburn Theological Seminary helped fund the production of Hard Road Home, a feature-length documentary about Julio Medina, a drug-dealing gang member who, upon his release from prison, started the Exodus Transitional Community, a faith-based re-entry program in East Harlem. (The film is beginning to be shown on the national film-festival circuit.) Another Foundation grant will help the New School University launch a graduate-level certificate program in documentary media studies.

It's always nice to be able to support grants that bridge efforts between several organizations. That was the case with a grant to the Barbad Chamber Orchestra, which commissioned a work by a young composer named Perry Townsend - a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts, another Foundation beneficiary through the years.