Lincoln Financial Group Foundation Enriches Lives, Fosters Creativity and Diversity with Grants to 38 Philadelphia Arts and Culture Nonprofit Organizations

Lincoln Financial Group Foundation Enriches Lives, Fosters Creativity and Diversity with Grants to 38 Philadelphia Arts and Culture Nonprofit Organizations

PHILADELPHIA, April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Lincoln Financial Group Foundation demonstrated its continued support to developing and sustaining the arts in the Greater Philadelphia region by awarding 38 grants totaling $477,000 to organizations in support of arts and culture programs.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050830/LFLOGO )
This cycle's grant recipients include:

Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Lincoln Foundation granted $65,000 to the Philadelphia Museum of Art
to support corporate partnership initiatives and the Meeting the World
Through Art program. The Philadelphia Museum of Art strives to
preserve, enhance, and extend the reach of its collections to an
increasingly diverse audience of all ages from the Greater Philadelphia
region and around the world. The Philadelphia Museum of Art Corporate
Partners Program enables the Museum to continue to expand key
initiatives in education, conservation, and technology. The Meeting
the World Through Art program incorporates studies of the art of three
Asian cultures into social studies curricula for third-, fourth-, and
fifth-grade students at Ellwood John Moffett and Spring Garden
elementary schools.

Philadelphia Orchestra Association
The Lincoln Foundation granted $50,000 to the Philadelphia Orchestra's
Education and School Partnership Program, a three-year partnership with
three School District of Philadelphia elementary schools. Over the
three years, the program will be sequenced to follow students in the
third, fourth and fifth grades and will include interaction with
Philadelphia Orchestra musicians; a teaching artist who will work with
each school; musical instruments and resources; and performances by
small ensembles at each school.

"Lincoln Financial Group's support of arts and culture organizations stems from our strong tradition of bettering our communities," says Jon A. Boscia, chairman and chief executive officer, Lincoln Financial Group. "We are pleased to support these organizations and the diverse programs they offer in hopes that these resources will allow them to grow or expand programs and help enrich lives."

In addition to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, the following arts and culture-focused organizations received grants from the Lincoln Financial Group Foundation:

Performing Arts
-- Strings for Schools - $25,000 to help fund Gabriel's Music, a youth
orchestra program that brings together nine School District of
Philadelphia schools to provide in-school music instruction, music
assemblies, and a three-week summer music program.
-- Opera Company of Philadelphia - $20,000 to support Sounds of Learning,
a comprehensive arts curriculum for fifth- through twelfth-grade
students that supports the School District of Philadelphia's literacy
standards. During the six- to eight-week program, students read and
act out the script in their schools and also attend a final dress
rehearsal at the Academy of Music.
-- Wilma Theater - $15,000 to fund Wilmagination, a program that enables
teachers to introduce School District of Philadelphia students to
theater techniques and reinforce the students' academic curriculum.
-- Arden Theatre Company - $10,000 to support Arden for All, a theatre
access program that provides complimentary tickets to children's
theatre performances and show-related books to primary and secondary
students with socio-economic challenges.
-- American Music Theater Festival - $10,000 to fund the Rainbow
Connection, a program that helps at-risk youth create and perform
original musicals about their lives.
-- Art Sanctuary - $10,000 to help fund North Stars, an afterschool
program for middle and high school students that uses writing, music,
art, and dance to help teens express themselves, culminating in a
multimedia theater production.
-- Creative Access - $10,000 to support Accessibility Beyond the Ramp, an
advocacy and education program to enhance the quality of life for deaf
and hard-of-hearing people and allow them opportunities to experience
arts and culture activities.
-- Pennsylvania Ballet - $10,000 to fund Accent on Dance, a continuum of
activities that bring children to the theater and to the rehearsal
studios and also takes pre-professional dancers into schools to offer
students an interactive experience with classical dance.
-- Mann Center for the Performing Arts - $10,000 to support Connecting
Arts-N-Schools, a program that brings arts education into schools with
limited, or non-existent, arts curriculum.
-- Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival - $10,000 to fund The Open Door
Project, a Shakespeare-focused outreach program initiative that
includes a high school residency, staff development for teachers, and
free admission to a Shakespeare Festival Production for approximately
3,000 School District of Philadelphia students.
-- Philadelphia Theatre Company - $10,000 to help fund Drama Contact, a
theater arts curriculum that introduces historical and social issues
into the classroom to enhance reading, writing and comprehension
skills using theater, as well as providing an opportunity for students
to attend performances.
-- Philadelphia Young Playwrights - $10,000 to support the expansion of
three of the organization's programs that promote literacy,
creativity, problem-solving, academic skills, motivation, and
self-empowerment.
-- Walnut Street Theatre Corp. - $7,500 to support the Adopt-a-School
Program, an initiative that creates an infrastructure for theater arts
and educates and encourages teachers to make the performing arts
active in their school through a two-year program for at-risk youth.
-- Academy of Community Music, Inc. - $5,000 to support its Crescendo
Music program, a family-focused, therapeutic, and educational effort
that uses music to facilitate the development of children at risk.
-- Astral Artistic Services - $5,000 to support Inward Bound, a program
that offers concerts for mature adults in hospitals, retirement, and
rehabilitation centers.
-- Curtis Institute of Music - $5,000 to help underwrite production costs
of two operas and outreach activities for the Curtis Opera Theatre,
complimentary tickets for the Curtis Symphony Orchestra concerts to
area schools, community groups and organizations, providing students
and underserved populations an opportunity to experience a live
orchestral performance.
-- District One Community Education Center, Inc. - $5,000 for its New
Edge Artists Service Program and Performance Series, a program that
supports the development of local emerging performing artists.
-- Enchantment Theatre Company - $5,000 to support Magic of Masks, an
outreach and arts education program that offers third- to fifth-grade
students an understanding of how Enchantment creates and mounts its
productions. Magic of the Masks school residency program brings
students into the magical world of theatrical production.
-- Philadelphia Boys Choir and Mens Chorale - $5,000 to support the music
education and performance program that provides a culturally and
ethnically diverse group of boys ages 8-15 from the greater
Philadelphia region an opportunity to experience quality music
instruction and perform nationally and internationally.
-- Singing City - $5,000 to support Singing City in the Schools, a
12-week residency program that teaches music rudiments, vocal
techniques, and choral composition, and offers students a chance to
perform in a school concert for parents and family.
-- Mum Puppettheatre - $4,000 to fund the expansion of the touring
program of Mum on the Move and increase the number of performances to
students in three School District of Philadelphia schools and one
charter school.

Museums and Visual Arts
-- Franklin Institute Science Museum - $25,000 to fund ACCESS, a program
that provides school children the opportunity to visit the Institute
at no cost or at a reduced cost to the student or school, as well as
pre- and post-visit materials to enhance the learning experience.
-- Center for Emerging Visual Artists - $15,000 to fund workforce
development and access initiatives.
-- Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia - $10,000 to
help underwrite the Underground Railroad Living History Experience, an
education program for fourth- through twelfth-grade students to
heighten awareness of the Underground Railroad through classroom
resources and a visit to the museum.
-- National Liberty Museum - $10,000 to sustain Freedom Tours, an
education outreach program that enables school-age children to visit
the museum and learn responsible citizenship, peaceful conflict
resolution, multicultural appreciation, effective communication,
self-esteem, and service learning. The effort also includes lesson
plans and resource materials prior to the museum visit.
-- Please Touch Museum - $10,000 to help fund the Achievement through
Community Service, Education, and Skill Building program, a year-round
learning enrichment and mentoring program that serves at-risk,
low-income teenagers in six public high schools.
-- Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, Inc. - $10,000 to help fund the
Community Partnerships in the Arts program, an effort that brings
together trained artists and elementary school students in the School
District of Philadelphia's South Region to offer skill development
through creative arts experiences that fosters civic awareness and
responsibility.
-- The Clay Studio - $5,000 to help support Claymobile, a mobile ceramic
art education program to help bring ceramics to the educational and
cultural programs.
-- Village of Arts and Humanities, Inc. - $5,000 to offset expenses due
to the organization's recent emergency and to help rebuild programs.
-- West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance - $5,000 to help fund five
Community Arts in Education programs that leverage arts, educational,
and cultural resources to improve the social and economic quality of
life.
-- Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks - $3,000 to
support the development of Historic Circle of Friends, an educational
program for sixth- through tenth-grade students that explores the
history of Samuel Powel, the last mayor of Philadelphia under
King George III and the first mayor of Philadelphia under the new
Republic.

Environmental and Horticultural
-- Zoological Society of Philadelphia - $20,000 to support its Junior Zoo
Apprentice Program, an initiative that provides science enrichment and
career-training for high school students in Philadelphia.
-- Fairmount Park Conservancy - $15,000 to continue funding of the
Lincoln Financial Group EcoBus to transport students, teachers,
chaperones, and campers to the Pennypack and Wissahickon Environmental
Centers in Fairmount Park.
-- Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia - $12,500 to help fund the
George Washington Carver Summer Scholars Program, a three-week session
that focuses on instruction, experimentation and visits to facilities
relating to water, water quality or watershed issues, and behind-the-
scene experiences in research labs and collection areas.
-- Neighborhood Gardens Association - $10,000 to support the Garden
Improvement Project to maintain existing community-managed gardens and
open spaces in Philadelphia and acquire land for new garden projects.
-- John Bartram Association - $10,000 to help support an initiative that
provides classes in natural sciences, arts, and history to school-age
children in the School District of Philadelphia's southwest region.

The Lincoln Financial Group Foundation, established in 1962, is the charitable giving arm of Lincoln Financial Group. Under Lincoln Foundation guidelines, grants are made in the areas of education, arts and culture, and human services. Lincoln Financial sets aside up to two percent of its pretax earnings, averaged over a three-year period, for charitable causes that support philanthropic endeavors in the communities where its employees live and work.

Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) and its affiliates. With headquarters in Philadelphia, Lincoln Financial Group had consolidated assets of $125 billion as of December 31, 2005, and had annual consolidated revenues of $5.5 billion in 2005. The company offers: annuities; life, group life and disability insurance; 401(k) and 403(b) plans; savings plans; mutual funds; managed accounts; institutional investments; and comprehensive financial planning and advisory services. Company affiliates include: Lincoln Financial Distributors, which provides wholesaling and marketing support; Lincoln Financial Advisors, a national network of financial planners, agents, and registered representatives; Delaware Investments, the marketing name for Delaware Management Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries; Lincoln Financial Media, which owns and operates three television stations, 18 radio stations, and the Lincoln Financial Sports production and syndication business; and Lincoln UK. For more information please visit http://www.lfg.com/.

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Source: Lincoln Financial Group

CONTACT: Media inquiries: Melanie Hall, +1-260-455-1836,
MediaRelations@LFG.com, or Investor inquiries: Priscilla Brown,
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Web site: http://www.lfg.com/

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