Introducing the Marian Anderson Legacy Fund and Scholarship

Pamela Wright, President General

October 30, 2023

It’s that time of year when we will soon be opening the DAR scholarship portal on November 1. Our National Chair of the DAR Scholarship Committee will be giving you more information in an upcoming blog post in just a couple of days, but today I wanted to highlight one special new scholarship that is being rolled out this year.

The DAR Marian Anderson Legacy Scholarship will be a $5,000 scholarship awarded annually to a student pursuing undergraduate or graduate study in music with a concentration in performance, composition, theory or education. Visit our Scholarships section of the DAR Website to learn more about it and how students can apply.

This scholarship will be supported by our new Marian Anderson Legacy Fund which we announced at the Opening Night Ceremony of the 132nd Continental Congress. For those who were not able to attend the 132nd Continental Congress this past June, you can watch online the portion of the ceremony where we celebrated Ms. Anderson.

During that presentation, we recapped the on-going restoration work at the Marian Anderson Museum and Historical Society in Philadelphia. DAR was proud to give the Marian Anderson Museum a $150,000 donation in December 2022, to support the restoration of both their historic building and Ms. Anderson’s personal gowns, many of which were damaged in the flood that affected the home.

During Congress we also shared the exciting news that we have on loan from the Marian Anderson Museum one of the beautiful concert gowns that our funding helped restore – and it is exquisite! The gorgeous cranberry red dress with sequins was originally on display in the President General’s Reception Room in Constitution Hall during Congress. I am excited to report that it is now on display to the public in the DAR Museum Study Gallery until February 15, 2024. We invite you to come see it at DAR Headquarters!

I encourage you to support our Marian Anderson Legacy Fund as part of our ongoing commitment to preserve Ms. Anderson’s memory. The Legacy Fund will not only benefit students pursuing their dreams in music through our new scholarship, but also support projects, programs and other initiatives that promote the legacy of Marian Anderson.

Over the years, DAR has engaged in many projects celebrating Ms. Anderson such as hosting events at our headquarters and partnering with outside organizations, donating books and sponsoring educational field trips for local school children, and making available documents from our archives for research. Learn more at the Marian Anderson section of our website at www.dar.org/MarianAnderson. Future projects the Legacy Fund will support similar projects and initiatives both internal and with partnering organizations.

It has been wonderful hearing all the support from members about these initiatives and our commitment to preserving Ms. Anderson’s legacy for generations to come. We look forward to seeing the impact that the Marian Anderson Legacy Fund will have in the future.

To support the Marian Anderson Legacy Fund, you can donate here and purchase your very own Marian Anderson pin.

A legendary singer and inspiration for civil rights, Marian Anderson’s legacy will be forever intertwined with the DAR and I am proud to celebrate the impactful role that Ms. Anderson had on our nation’s history and on our organization.

Send Us a comment