Arts & Entertainment

Alec Baldwin Donates $250K To Guild Hall

Actor donates all proceeds from Capital One commercial to arts organizations.

Always a supporter of the arts, 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin has donated $250,000 to Guild Hall from his Capital One ad campaign. 

Baldwin, a longtime Guild Hall supporter and East Hampton resident, said the ad served as a platform for awareness about the need for arts funding, while the government has reduced funding for the arts, which he said is "bad for arts education and America’s cultural heritage." 

“Guild Hall serves the community throughout the year by providing inspiring performances, films, readings and exhibitions, along with arts education in schools and other activities that are needed,” Baldwin said in the statement.

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Baldwin is on the board of directors at Guild Hall. He will once again appear in the John Drew Theater for a staged reading of Peter Shaffer’s The Gift of the Gorgon, directed by Tony Walton and featuring Melissa Errico and Sam Underwood, on July 8. 

Ruth Appelhof, the executive director at Guild Hall, said the donation will help support the visual and performing arts on the East End. 

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 “With the recent cut in government funding, we are depending more and more on private and corporate giving to achieve our goals," Appelhof said. "We very much appreciate Alec’s support which will go toward paying off the final $2 million left in our Capital Campaign following our recent renovation.”

The statement said Baldwin donated all of the proceeds from the commercial and Guild Hall was not the only recipient; The New York Philharmonic, the Roundabout Theater and the  are beneficiaries.

Baldwin's agreement with Capital One is that the bank match donations made on their website to Americans for the Arts.


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