Gregory Annenberg Weingarten

Gregory Annenberg Weingarten, a Vice President and Director of the Annenberg Foundation, is dedicated to supporting innovative projects in the arts, education, and humanitarian efforts.  From his Paris-based GRoW office, Gregory is among the most generous American contributors to France, as well as to organizations throughout the United States.

Institut Curie

Gregory’s own experience as an artist has fostered a deep appreciation for the visual arts. In 2006, Gregory funded the creation of l’Espace pédagogique Annenberg at the Musées des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.  This relationship led to two key acquisitions, “Deuxième Rhinocéros" by Francois-Xavier Lalanne, and “Barbie Foot,” by Chloé Ruchon, as well as support for an exhibition of the work of Jean-Paul Goude in late 2011.  As a champion of the unique bond between the United States and France, Gregory has helped to showcase American artists at the Centre National d'art et de Culture Georges Pompidou with the “Morphosis” show in 2006 and the 2009 exhibit of the late American sculptor Alexander Calder.

Modern Art (MoMA), including the creation of a comprehensive digital archive of over 2,000 German Expressionist prints and drawings.  As a direct result of this project, MoMA launched the critically-acclaimed exhibition, “Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse" in 2011. In addition, as a founding donor of the French Regional American Museum Exchange, Gregory has created a legacy of promoting cultural diplomacy and fostering partnerships to develop exhibitions, innovative educational and public programs that reach a global audience.

Building on his grandfather’s unwavering belief in the power of education to transform lives, Gregory inaugurated the opening of the Annenberg Center for Arts and Sciences at the Ecole Active Bilingue Jeanine Manuel in Paris in 2007. The Center provides a hands-on approach to science, using a method pioneered by French and American experts.  In an effort to energize educational outreach to underserved communities in Paris and across France, Gregory has partnered with the Musée du Louvre to develop state-of-the-art programming in schools and at the museum.

Barbie Foot

Other educational support includes scholarship support for journalism students from developing countries at the American University of Paris, and to American students studying at the Parson's School in Paris. Gregory has also partnered with the Memorial of the Shoah in Paris to sponsor the Summer University, an international conference and workshop on the teaching of the Holocaust.

With a keen eye for innovation and creativity, Gregory has supported numerous cutting-edge performances, including American artist Bill Viola's highly acclaimed version of “Tristan and Isolde,” as well as the work of Ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, which performs and records seminal works of the 16^th, 17^th, and 18^th centuries that are rarely heard today.  As the largest benefactor to L'Academie Americaine de Danse de Paris, Gregory supports American-style dance instruction to students from around the world.

Gregory's effort to create a vibrant partnership between France and America earned him the title of “Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters), awarded by French Minister of Culture Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres in 2007. In 2009, he was named Grand Mécène, Grand Donateur de la Culture, and that same year, his wife, Regina – a partner in his philanthropy, earned the prestigious “Legion of Honor” distinction.

In the area of health and human services, Gregory has funded programs for CARE France that provide drinking water to arid regions of Africa; in addition to Medecins du Monde programming that provides health care to underserved and at-risk youth in Peru and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2011, Gregory initiated a multi-year research program with the Institut Curie, supporting the creation of a laboratory of translational research in pediatric oncology that will work to better understand the origin of neuroblastoma, one of the most common forms of childhood cancer, in order to identify new drugs targeting the tumor cells.

Gregory graduated from Stanford with a degree in Political Science. He later worked as a journalist at the Times of London, before embarking on a career as an artist. He currently shows his work primarily in the United States and France.