The Biggest Donor

W. Jerome Frautschi is a man of his word, and it’s a good thing for the city of Madison that he is. When Frautschi offered to pay the full cost of constructing Madison’s Overture Center for the Arts, that cost was projected to be $50 million. Instead, the final price tag was $205 million, and Frautschi’s gift is now believed to be the largest amount ever given to a single arts organization by a single donor.