Sounds of resilience

Bass couple throws a lifeline to Fort Worth musicians struggling amid COVID-19

Abraham Alexander helped spearhead the new Sounds of Resilience grant program to benefit local musicians.

Photo by Sheryl Lanzel

Continuing their philanthropy during the COVID-19 pandemic that started with a grant program for visual artists, Fort Worth billionaires Sasha and Edward P. Bass, through their Fine Line Group, have founded the new Sounds of Resilience grant program to benefit local musicians.

The second in a series of competitive grant programs designed to help get Fort Worth’s arts community back to work, the $100,000 initiative invites area musicians to compose works about resilience to fuel the city’s creative economy and to help drive community healing and positive change.

“Music is part of Fort Worth’s soul," said the Basses in a statement. "As our city battles a pandemic and reckons with the legacy of prejudice, Sounds of Resilience delivers not just highly-focused financial support to Fort Worth-area musicians, but also helps to create an audio record of our town’s unique perspective on all that has occurred, and all that we hope to see in the future.”

Applicants are asked to create and submit a unique live performance video of two original songs, in a format similar to a “Tiny Desk” submission, along with a personal statement about their experience in the pandemic and the role their music will play in drawing people together around the theme of resilience. The full application is available at soundsofresilience.com/apply. There is no fee to apply.

A panel of six of Fort Worth’s music industry leaders, including Abraham Alexander, T Bone Burnett, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Troy Campbell, Rosana Eckert, and Amy Miller, will manage the selection process.

They will award $2,000 grants to 35 musicians and $5,000 grants to the top six strongest applicants. Those six musicians will be paired together to create and produce an original and inspired song about resilience, which will be recorded live at Bass Performance Hall.

“This program is a lifeline for the musicians of our city," said Alexander in a statement. "Sounds of Resilience makes it possible for them to focus on doing what they do best — creating. Musicians will not have to worry about their next bill or what equipment they will need to sell in order to put food on the table. (The program) will rekindle hope, fuel collaboration, and change the fabric of our music scene for the better.

The initiative is led by the Fine Line Group, with support from the Alice L. Walton Foundation, the Tartaglino Richards Family Foundation, and Bass Performance Hall. It is administered by Gallery of Dreams, a Fort Worth nonprofit arts organization established by Lauren Saba Childs of Fort Works Art.

Applications for Sounds of Resilience opened on July 1, and those interested can apply through August 2. Grant recipients will be announced on August 31.

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Ancient Sculpture News

Fort Worth museum one of only 3 in U.S. to get rare sculpture exhibit

Lorenzo di Masi/Torlonia Collection

The Torlonia Nile

A major exhibition of ancient Roman masterworks is coming to the U.S. for the first time to be viewed at only three museums — including the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Called Myth and Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection, it's an assemblage of works stewarded by the Torlonia Family beginning in the early-19th century, and will be installed at the Kimbell from September 14, 2025 – January 25, 2026.

As part of the Foundation’s mission to showcase these historical works to the public, the exhibition will premiere at the Art Institute of Chicago on March 15 through June 29, before traveling to the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Its third stop will be at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, from March 14 - July 19, 2026.

The Torlonia Collection was established during the course of the 19th century by the Franco-Italian banker Prince Giovanni Torlonia and his son Alessandro, then handed down over generations, eventually growing into the largest private collection of ancient Roman sculptures.

Today, the Torlonia Foundation represents the culmination of the Family’s continued passion for art. Created at the behest of Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1925–2017), the Foundation’s mission is to preserve and promote the Torlonia Collection and Villa Albani Torlonia.

In 1876, Prince Alessandro Torlonia (1800-1886) created a museum to house and exhibit the Family’s holdings, which was open to small groups until its closure at the onset of World War II. The sculptures remained unseen by the public from that time until the Foundation’s first exhibition at the Musei Capitolini in Rome in 2020. That was followed by a stint at the Louvre, the first presentation of the collection outside of Rome, where it has drawn more than 600,000 visitors to date, an unprecedented feat.

The exhibit
The curators of Myth & Marble: Ancient Roman Sculpture from the Torlonia Collection are Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff of the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibition is co-organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, in collaboration with the Kimbell Art Museum, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and The Museum Box. All of the sculptures in the exhibition have been restored by the Foundation with the support of Bvlgari.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue co-published by the Art Institute of Chicago and the Torlonia Foundation, edited by Lisa Ayla Çakmak and Katharine A. Raff, with essays by Silvia Beltrametti and Salvatore Settis.

The North American presentation will feature 58 highlights from the Torlonia Collection, including 24 newly restored works that have not been on view in nearly a century. The sculptures date from approximately the 5th century BCE to the early 4th century CE, with the majority of the works dating to the High Imperial period (1st–2nd centuries CE). Highlights include examples of the most emblematic genres of ancient marble sculpture, acquired by the Torlonia Family from the most prominent collections of Rome’s patrician families, as well as from excavations made on the Family’s own estates throughout Italy.

“The Foundation is excited to be sharing the Torlonia Collection with audiences in North America for the first time. This exceptional group of ancient sculptures is a testament to the enduring cultural legacy of ancient Rome, as well as the vision and passion of multiple generations of the Torlonia Family,” said Alessandro Poma Murialdo, President of the Torlonia Foundation.

The presentation is organized thematically in six sections, featuring sculptures found on the Torlonia Family’s properties in Rome and the surrounding suburbs and their estate in Porto, Portugal, as well as a number of exceptional sarcophagi (stone coffins), among the largest sculpted works in marble to survive from ancient Rome.

The tour reinforces the work of the Foundation to advance the appreciation and understanding of this unparalleled collection and the rich cultural heritage it represents. The Foundation’s mission is carried out through a continuous joint effort between the public and private sectors, including with the cooperation of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The Foundation is supported by a longstanding collaboration with Bvlgari as the principal sponsor of the restoration project since its inception in Rome and throughout the global tour, and Chiomenti, who has lent invaluable support to the Foundation’s core activities.

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