The Wege Foundation’s Mission is the Five Pillars, or areas of interest: Education, Environment, Arts & Culture, Health Care, and Human Services. The three photographs you see here reflect all five areas of interest.

The top picture is the new Grand Rapids Art Museum that touches all Five Pillars, with Arts & Culture the most obvious. Now officially declared the first art museum in the world to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, GRAM also includes the Pillar of Environment. Since a major reason for building a new art museum was to provide more space for art classes, GRAM also meets the Educational standard.

Health Care for GRAM would be a stretch—unless you understood Peter Wege’s philosophy of health as a balance of mind, body, and spirit. He understands that the arts are a necessary part of energizing the human spirit. The graffiti wall below comes from the urban area called Heartside only blocks away from GRAM. Building a destination culture center so near an inner-city neighborhood elevates the people who live there, honoring the Human Services component.

Fred Meijer, whose family founded what is now a Midwest chain of Meijer Market superstores, came to Peter in the 1990s with his dream of building a world-class gardens and sculpture park. The environmentalism of the gardens combined with the arts component made it easy for Peter to support his friend’s vision. In 2005, ten years after it opened, the Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park had earned national recognition and was Michigan’s second largest cultural attraction with 600,000 visitors a year.

Clearly, The Wege Foundation’s gifts can’t be limited to just one of the Five Pillars, but always spill over into the other areas of interest. And they never happen alone, but in collaboration with other generous benefactors—like Peter’s friend Fred and the Meijer Foundation.

Visit the Frederik Meijer Gardens at http://www.meijergardens.org.