The Kevin Spacey Foundation, which worked to encourage young people in the performing arts, will cease operating in the UK from Wednesday, the organization’s trustees say.
The foundation’s social media activity had already been wound down and its website scaled back in the wake of the sexual harassment and assault allegations against Spacey that emerged last fall. The site now consists of a holding page and another page announcing that the foundation would be shuttered Wednesday.
“The Trustees have reached the conclusion that the work of the Kevin Spacey Foundation UK is no longer viable and as such the Foundation will be closing on the 28 February 2018,” the statement read.
“The Trustees would like to thank all their partners, artists and [organizations] for the great work that has been done in association with the Foundation. The Trustees hope that the objects of the charity will be taken forward by other [organizations].”
Steven Jackson-Winter, a drama teacher and longtime Spacey associate who headed the foundation’s UK operations, could not immediately be reached for comment. He is thought to have left KSF last November and is now consulting on various projects.
The Kevin Spacey Foundation was officially registered in Britain in 2008, during the two-time Oscar-winning actor’s tenure as artistic director of The Old Vic theater in London from 2004 to 2015. The foundation is a registered charity in both the US and Britain. The status of its operations in the US, where it listed nearly $1 million in assets at the end of 2015, is not immediately clear.
The organization worked with young people in film, theater and dance, offering scholarships and awards, mentorships and educational programs for emerging talent. But its future immediately became clouded after actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of sexually assaulting him when he was just 14 and Spacey was 26.
Britain’s charities commission asked the foundation’s UK trustees for assurances that safeguards were in place to protect young people participating in the foundation’s programs. Regent’s University in London, where Spacey conducted workshops, and Pace University in New York, which received donations to help students with scholarships, said their relationships with the foundation were short-term and had ended before the allegations against Spacey surfaced.
Spacey was removed from the foundation’s board of directors last November. He was fired from Netflix series “House of Cards,” and replaced by Christopher Plummer in Ridley Scott’s “All the Money in the World.”
Scotland Yard has opened several investigations into alleged sexual assaults by Spacey in London.