Sybil Shearer - The Morrison-Shearer Foundation

The Morrison-Shearer Foundation

The Morrison-Shearer Foundation, established in 1991, preserves the works related to the careers of photographer Helen Balfour Morrison and dancer-choreographer Sybil Shearer. The foundation also maintains the home, designed for Morrison by architect Robert E. Seyfarth, and studio where the pair lived and worked. The Foundation also sponsors new creativity. It is supported entirely by income from the Foundation's investments.

The Foundation’s current projects are to complete the publication of Sybil Shearer’s three-volume autobiography Without Wings the Way is Steep; to preserve and archive all photographs, films, letters, manuscripts, reviews and other memorabilia; to provide modest annual Board-initiated grants in support of current work in the arts, especially dance; to explore the possibilities of creating an artists’ retreat at the home and studio in Northbrook, Illinois; and to share the Morrison-Shearer legacy through a website and other means. The first volume of Sybil Shearer's three-part autobiography, Without Wings the Way Is Steep (a title taken from one of her dances), was released in 2008.