Ford Gifts The Ark

Ford Motor Co. is making a $500,000 donation to a well-known Ann Arbor, Mich., music venue celebrating its 50th year.

Detroit Free Press reports the gift to The Ark will be paid over 20 years and will include naming the 400-capacity club’s main stage the Ford Listening Room.

The funding helps put a capital campaign more than 70 percent of the way to a $2.5 million goal to fund renovations and the purchase of the non-profit venue. The Ark Executive Director Marianne James told the paper the fundraising “will position The Ark for the future of the next 50 years.”