The St. Paul Companies Supports Diversity Through Arts In Latest Round Of Grants.

Lifestyle Editors/Business Editors

SAINT PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 5, 2003

The St. Paul Companies (NYSE:SPC) today released a list of grants and charitable gifts made by the company and its two private foundations during third quarter 2003, with payments totaling $1.8 million to assist 77 nonprofit organizations. Grants for the first nine months of 2003 have totaled $5.5 million.

Of this quarter's grants, $482,000 was awarded to organizations that seek to enrich lives and celebrate diversity through arts and cultural activities. "Arts and cultural programs are critical to a community's ability to promote understanding among diverse cultures," said Mary Pickard, president of The St. Paul's two private foundations. "We're providing nearly half a million dollars to arts and cultural organizations because we see them as a means to help people overcome class, social, cultural and economic barriers."

In addition to providing financial support for the arts, The St. Paul also designates $125,000 annually to support an ongoing joint initiative between COMPAS, a Minnesota nonprofit arts organization, and The St. Paul's employee Arts and Diversity Committee. St. Paul employees serving on the committee work with COMPAS to designate funding and offer volunteer assistance to a handful of projects that communicate diversity and offer arts programming to low-income communities.

One such project is Teaching Tolerance, an integrated curriculum developed by the Southern Poverty Law Center and volunteers from the National Council of Jewish Women. St. Paul employees have been involved in organizing the project since its inception and continue to volunteer in participating schools. The program is designed to help elementary school children explore issues surrounding diversity and tolerance. As part of the curriculum, children learn that skin color labels such as "black" and "white" are meaningless, and instead, they mix paints to find colors that closely match their own skin tones and give the colors unique names, such as "vanilla pancakes" or "falling leaves." The St. Paul provided seed money for the program's debut in Minnesota two years ago. This year the company provided $5,000 to offer the program to area schools in Denver, Co.

A second example is The St. Paul's Arts and Diversity Committee partnership with the Center for Hmong Arts and Talent (CHAT). In August, The St. Paul donated $15, 000 to CHAT to support its Second Annual Hmong Arts Festival in St. Paul, Minn. More than 3,500 people attended the event, which provided a cross-cultural venue for Hmong art forms and cultural traditions. Hmong elders played traditional instruments while Hmong children danced, sang and learned about their traditional roots through plays performed in both Hmong and English. St. Paul employees helped to market the festival to the Twin Cities community and volunteered during the festival events.

"These projects are true partnerships between St. Paul employees and the community and go way beyond financial support," Pickard said. "Our committee members develop deep and long-lasting relationships with local nonprofits and become both personally and professionally invested in the success of these projects."

In the Twin Cities, The St. Paul Companies, Inc. Foundation's third quarter contributions included grants to 15 arts nonprofits, among them:

-- $150,000 to the Minnesota Historical Society to support its

"Cloudy Waters" exhibit, an exhibit opening next June that

will present a Dakota perspective on the Mississippi River and

what the river means to the state's Native peoples;

-- $7,500 to support Midway Contemporary Art, an arts

organization in St. Paul that provides diverse, visual

contemporary art exhibits by emerging artists; and

-- $12,000 to the Kulture Klub Collaborative in Minneapolis to

provide at-risk and homeless youth access to the arts through

presentations and participation in diverse artistic

experiences.

The St. Paul Companies, Inc. Foundation also provided support to several arts organizations in communities across the United States. In Baltimore, Center Stage Associates received $10,000 to support diverse artistic productions and outreach programs for low-income communities in Greater Baltimore. In Chicago, The Joel Hall Dance Center received $10,000 to support its dance programming for underserved youth.

Overall, from July - Sept. 2003, The St. Paul Companies and its two private foundations collectively made 77 grants or charitable gifts in three focus areas geared toward fostering strong, healthy and vital communities. The grant and gift awards include:

-- 26 grants to arts and culture organizations, totaling

$482,000;

-- 34 grants to education organizations, totaling $602,000; and

-- 17 grants to community development organizations, totaling

$770,000.

A complete listing of grants may be found on The St. Paul Companies' Web site, at www.stpaul.com

The St. Paul Companies Inc. Foundation and The St. Paul Companies Maryland Foundation, Inc. are not-for-profit private foundations operated by The St. Paul Companies. The St. Paul Companies provides commercial property-liability insurance and asset management services. The St. Paul reported 2002 revenue from continuing operations of $8.9 billion and total assets of $39.9 billion. This year marks its 150th anniversary. For more information about The St. Paul and its products and services, visit the company's Web site, www.stpaul.com.

To find out more about The St. Paul's community involvement programs, contact The St. Paul Companies' Community Affairs department at [phone], or at 385 Washington Street, MC 514D, Saint Paul, Minn., 55102.