Introducing
Wallis Annenberg
“These truly mesmerizing majestic mammals — sculpted to scale by indigenous artists using plant remnants — are morally profound works of art that amplify how humans can coexist with nature, rather than co-opt it. The migration piece directly aligns with the Annenberg Foundation’s work globally on conservation, as well as increasing engagement with the arts through powerful communication. I am so happy to support this triumphant and most meaningful exhibit, which culminates its American run steps from the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.”
Wallis Annenberg is a visionary who uses philanthropy as a powerful instrument to improve the well-being of people and communities, not only by addressing vexing societal problems, but also by creating new pathways to fulfillment, excellence, and success. As she has said, “I’ve tried to focus not just on giving, but on innovating.”
Her innovative giving ranges from education to arts and culture, from medical research to environmental stewardship, from social justice to animal welfare — always guided by the Annenberg Foundation’s core values of community, compassion, diversity, and fairness.
Since assuming chairmanship of the Foundation in 2009, Wallis’ robust philanthropy has impacted more than 2,700 nonprofits and other organizations. She has also funded special projects that expand the boundaries of traditional philanthropy. She is a recipient of the 2022 National Humanities Medal, awarded by the President of the United States of America.
She has a lifelong appreciation for the human-animal bond. In 2016, Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation took up the call for funds to develop a massive corridor across the 101 freeway in Agoura Hills, to provide wildlife with a safe place to cross into other habitats. Thanks to the Annenberg Foundation’s $1 million challenge grant, the project received donations from more than 3,000 private, philanthropic, and corporate institutions around the world and helped NWF raise enough money to begin construction. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing is due to be completed in 2026.
Wallis is a life trustee of the University of Southern California and has been honored by numerous organizations, such as the Kennedy Center, Americans for the Arts, the Shoah Foundation, and the California African American Museum as well as serving on a number of boards, including the California Science Center, the Music Center and the Performing Arts Center, the LA Philharmonic, the LA County Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, the Harlem Children’s Zone and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.