Hillman Foundation focuses its support of the arts primarily on the visual arts and on major cultural institutions serving large numbers of people. A variety of regional organizations and programs that promote the arts and arts education receive support each year as well.
     The Foundation’s grantmaking in the arts adheres to the principle that cultural attractions enrich the lives of the region’s residents while they strengthen the local economy, attract new businesses and residents, and promote tourism.
     Grants to Carnegie Institute—a renowned complex of four museums—reflect the diversity both of the Foundation’s grantmaking and of a unique Pittsburgh cultural resource. Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems at Carnegie Museum of Natural History is considered to be one of the world’s premier mineral collections and among the finest presentations of minerals in the country,
     The exhibits in Hillman Hall reveal the color, sculptural beauty and economic usefulness of more than 1,300 minerals, gems, and even meteorites. For over 25 years, Hillman Hall has been one of the museum’s most popular attractions.