The Shaw Festival announces the receipt of a three million dollar gift from Tim and Frances Price to jumpstart the creation of the Andy Pringle Creative Reserve. Named in honour of the Shaw Festival's previous board chair, the Andy Pringle Creative Reserve will allow Artistic Director Tim Carroll and his successors to take artistic risk and experiment with ideas that might be otherwise hampered by a lack of investment capital. The Price's initial donation will permanently endow 2.5 million dollars in the Andy Pringle Creative Reserve while also supporting programming in the current and future seasons. Shaw Festival board member Jaime Watt will chair a campaign to secure additional donations to grow this fund over the coming year.
"Andy is a friend and was responsible for my joining the Shaw Festival's Board of Governors. I could not be more excited to see a fund created in his honour that champions the kind of forward-thinking business investment that Andy himself endorses," says Tim Price. "In
Tim Carroll, I see a new energy at The Shaw - an audience-focused and transparent framework. It's a Shaw Festival that Frances and I are proud to support! And we challenge others who believe in the new vision for the Shaw Festival to join us in giving to the Andy Pringle Creative Reserve."
Mr. Pringle served as the chair of The Shaw from 2013-2016 during which time he championed new ideas and experimentation with the theatre business models. Mr. Pringle, who is chair of RP Investment Advisors and on the board of Fidelity Canada, is a noted philanthropist and communitarian, currently serving as chair of the Toronto Police Services Board as well as the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research (CANFAR). He is a past chair of Upper Canada College and of the PC Ontario Fund, and has previously served on the boards of the Walrus Foundation, the Atlantic Salmon Federation and many other charities. In June 2016, Mr. Pringle was awarded the Order of Canada. Mr. Pringle lives in Toronto with his wife, broadcaster
Valerie Pringle.
"To have Tim and Frances lead off the creation of this fund with a gift of such generosity is really touching and hugely inspiring!" says Andy Pringle. "The Shaw is on a terrific course with the executive team of
Tim Carroll and
Tim Jennings at the helm. I know they will find and develop excellent new projects to move the company forward and I am happy to somehow be a part of that."
Artistic Director
Tim Carroll lauded both the Prices, noting: "We are so lucky to have leaders like Tim and Frances in our corner. Andy's legacy at The Shaw and across Canada has been enormous and for philanthropists like the Prices to be so generous in supporting us and in honouring Andy in this way is truly game changing. We can't thank them enough!"
Tim Price, a Shaw Festival board member since 2016, is chairman of Brookfield Funds, a division of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and a leading asset manager with more than $200 billion worth of assets under management in property, renewable energy and infrastructure. He and wife Frances are among Canada's leading philanthropists, both serving on the boards of many of Canada's most important cultural and charitable institutions.
The first project supported by the Price's gift will be the 2018 world premiere of
Mythos: A Trilogy - Gods. Heroes. Men. written by and starring
Stephen Fry and directed by
Tim Carroll.
