Janta Endowment Fund Campaign

On June 1, 2016, the Polish Arts Club of Buffalo, Inc. began a campaign to raise $200,000 to create a permanent fund named for Aleksander and Walentyna Janta-Polczynski. The idea for the fund was initiated by Mrs. Valentine Janta whose husband Aleksander was President of the Club from 1949 to 1951.

To assist in this effort Mrs. Janta provided a generous gift of $100,000 as a matching grant.  This money was deposited in the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo.  This meant that in order to keep the entire $100,000 the Club needed to raise $100,000 within five (5) years. Whatever money not matched would be transferred to a fund in her name to Wroclaw, Poland.

The initial grant stipulated that proceeds of the fund are to be used to:

1. 1. ​Stage and or promote the staging of plays in the Buffalo and Western New York region in English, or English translation, by Polish or Polish-American playwrights from both sides of the Atlantic at colleges and universities.

   2. Invite distinguished writers, poets and playwrights who speak English, to give lectures and readings at appropriate venues in Western New York.

The Club raised $90,000 toward the Challenge Grant through generous donations and the increase in the stock portfolio managed by the Community Foundation.

In a visit to Buffalo in July of 2021, the executor of Mrs. Janta’s estate, gifted the Club with the additional $10,000 and expanded on the fund’s use to include theatre and musical performance, lectures, and exhibits in the Fine Arts and on topics of Polish History. The seven Fine Arts are painting, sculpture, music, dance, poetry and literature.

Continued support for the fund may be made by sending a check payable to the “Polish Arts Club of Buffalo, Inc.-Janta Fund” and mail to Polish Arts Club of Buffalo, Inc., P.O. Box 259, Buffalo, NY 14207-0259

The Polish Arts Club of Buffalo, Inc. is a 501(c) 3 non-profit.  All donations are tax deductible to the extent permitted by law.  The Polish Arts Club of Buffalo, Inc. is supported with cultural funding from the Erie County budget, Mark C. Poloncarz, County Executive.