Permanent galleries expand Arizona and Indiana cultural offerings

The Trust’s investments in enriching community life primarily focus on institutions and organizations that give a city its soul – libraries, zoos and museums. Three permanent galleries the Trust helped fund in prior years opened at museums in Indiana and Arizona in 2018.

Frozen Reign at the Indiana State Museum explores the Ice Age through compelling interactive experiences, complete with chilled-air ice tunnels, glacial sound effects and ancient animals in realistic environments. The exhibition demonstrates environmental change over time and its relevance for Indiana’s ecosystems today.

The Museum of Northern Arizona unveiled its revitalized Native Peoples of the Colorado Plateau exhibition. Museum directors partnered with more than 40 tribal consultants from several American Indian tribes to contribute to the gallery’s themes, objects and wording that describe the complex histories of the native people who have inhabited the Colorado Plateau for thousands of years.

Children clamber through prickly pear cactus pads, slither through an oversized rattlesnake and explore the secrets of the Packrat Playhouse: Hidden in the Midden installment at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Packrats are considered nature’s archivists. Their large, messy nests, or middens, leave clues about the local environment that existed thousands of years ago.

Investing in species preservation

Nina Mason Pulliam loved the Phoenix Zoo and was among its earliest benefactors. She generously invested in the Zoo during her lifetime, serving an instrumental role in saving the African oryx from extinction by leading and funding preservation efforts. Because of Mrs. Pulliam’s great affection for the Phoenix Zoo, the Trust continues to invest in its species preservation efforts, including funding in 2013 for the Sumatran tiger habitat. In 2018, the Trust provided $1 million to aid the Zoo’s conservation efforts for the endangered African lion. The Trust’s investment supports development of a 1-acre habitat for the lion and the spotted hyena. The Phoenix Zoo is creating the new habitat as part of its participation with the African Lion Species Survival Plan Program through the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, an international breeding program.

Collective community impact:
keeping youth safe online

The Trust often partners with peer philanthropic foundations and community organizations to achieve greater impact. In 2018, the Trust joined with Arizona Community Foundation and the Phoenix IDA to bring Common Sense Media to Arizona to increase the safety of our community’s children in the online environment. According to Common Sense research, teens spend almost nine hours per day, outside of schoolwork, on some form of media; and 49 percent of fourth- to eighth-grade students are online after 11 p.m. on school nights. Issues surface for young people in schools and at home, including privacy violations, hate speech, online harassment, digital addiction and anxiety, and depression attributable to social media use. Common Sense Media provides parents, educators and children with resources and education to help young people maximize the positive effects of digital media and minimize the potential downsides.