Will Madison Turn Down A $100 Million Art Center Gift?

"In 1998 a Madison, Wisconsin, businessman named Jerry Frautschi did something remarkable. The textbook-printing magnate announced that he would provide funding--eventually totaling $100 million--for the construction of an arts complex on a mostly city-owned block downtown. The gift is huge: it equals the NEA's entire budget, or two-thirds of Madison's annual tax revenues. But it is not quite a no-strings-attached donation. In truth, it dangles from one rather large rope: Frautschi is the sole donor, and he has given the money to his own organization, the Overture Foundation, which will determine how it is spent."