The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation aims to foster the advancement and perpetuation of humanistic inquiry and artistic creativity. It supports excellence in scholarship, the performing arts, and institutions like research libraries that transmit cultural heritage, reflecting the interests of its founders, Gladys Krieble Delmas and Jean Paul Delmas.
The Foundation's grant programs aim to further the humanities, supporting projects in history, archaeology, literature, languages, philosophy, ethics, comparative religion, and more. It encourages projects that cross humanistic boundaries and connect the humanities with other areas of scholarship. Special attention is given to programs in Venice related to the humanities. The Performing Arts Program, focusing on not-for-profit organizations in NYC, supports music, dance, and theatre, particularly ballet, modern dance, companies presenting classics in theatre, and groups making early music or contemporary repertory available to NYC audiences. The Research Libraries Program seeks to enhance the ability of research libraries to support humanities and performing arts scholarship and make their resources more widely accessible, promoting projects like cooperative cataloging, preservation, and small-scale digitizing related to scholarly projects.