1950s

On the eve of his 75th birthday, C.S. Mott offered up to $1 million in land and funds to create a four-year college in Flint. Construction of a new campus for the Flint Junior College, which would also serve as the first home for what is now the University of Michigan-Flint, began in 1952. In 1973, the junior college was renamed the Charles Stewart Mott Community College in recognition of its longtime champion and benefactor.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower presented the International Big Brother of the Year award to C.S. Mott, honoring his “outstanding work with the Flint Youth Bureau and for broad humanitarian endeavor.”

Local school children, residents, businesses and foundations pitched in to raise about $30 million to support the creation of a cultural district in Flint. Construction started in the mid-1950s, and in rapid succession the Flint Institute of Arts, Flint Institute of Music, Sloan Museum, Whiting Auditorium, Bower Theater, Longway Planetarium and the main branch of the Flint Public Library opened to the public. One of the first of its kind in the nation, the Flint Cultural Center sponsors a range of high-quality programming, including the Flint Symphony Orchestra, Flint School of Performing Arts, Flint Youth Theatre — now called the Flint Repertory Theatre — and one of the country’s largest museum art schools. It also boasts the Flint Cultural Center Academy, a public, nonprofit charter school which opened in time for the 2019/20 academic year and offers students a unique educational experience. Through 2022, the Mott Foundation granted more than $261 million in endowment, operating, long-range planning, capital and program support for the Flint Cultural Center, its institutions and related projects.

By 1957, Flint became a destination for others seeking to replicate its community education model. Over the next decade, the number of annual visitors grew to more than 12,000.

Young athletes from Flint, Michigan, and Hamilton, Ontario, gathered in the summer of 1958 for the first CANUSA games, a friendly competition that continues today. Originally funded by the Mott Foundation, the CANUSA games are among the longest-running international sports competitions in the world.