By Mary Bergin | Photography by Hillary Schave
Madison philanthropist Diane Ballweg is making lunch for friends and that involves four from-scratch soups. She calls one “the seven c’s” because of the key ingredients (chicken, corn, carrots, cream). Clipped to a cookbook holder is a recipe for chocolate pecan banana bread, which she serves freshly sliced. At each table setting is a mini loaf to take home.
While prepping the meal, Ballweg floats a two-word question to her guests: “What if?” The simple inquiry encourages her visitors to dream big. Clearly, Ballweg thrives on ambition and isn’t at ease with mental lounging — she’s a natural teacher and a dreamer.
Ballweg is the owner of Endres Manufacturing (started by her grandfather in 1926), a steel fabricating business. She’s best known for her deep support of the arts in Madison and has galleries, performance spaces and concert series named after her. She has donated millions of dollars and countless hours to an alphabet soup of Madison-based acronyms: Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO), Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO), International Women’s Forum (IWF), Madison Children’s Museum (MCM), Madison Community Foundation (MCF), Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra (WYSO), Children’s Theater of Madison (CTM) and Madison Youth Choirs (MYC).
On Ballweg’s front burner is leading fundraising efforts for the new WYSO building at 1118 E. Washington Ave. It’s a $33 million project, with $5 million to go. Once again she’ll also chaperone WYSO’s summer youth concert tour, this year to Spain and Portugal.
“For decades Diane has made invaluable contributions to WYSO, investing in the programs that build not only fine young musicians but fine human beings,” says Bridget Fraser, WYSO’s executive director.
Ballweg’s influence reaches much farther than the arts. In 2023, Ballweg formed the Madison Justice Team to help improve the criminal justice system — no easy task. The idea came to her during her advanced leadership initiative studies at Harvard University. One of her homework assignments was “to make the world a better place,” she explains.
Ballweg says the work aims to “educate people on the problems in our system, because people can’t act on what they don’t know,” and encourages collaboration among roughly 50 relevant agencies.
Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett calls her “a transformative criminal justice leader, with innovative philosophies for reform and rehabilitation” and someone who “prioritizes evidence-based solutions that address the needs of our most vulnerable population.”
Another of Ballweg’s loves is aviation.
Her newly published book, “Into the Wind, Above the Clouds: Love at First Flight!” shares life lessons from Ballweg’s decades of experience as a private pilot. Ballweg dispenses wisdom such as, “A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour,” and “the death of fear is doing what you fear to do.”
She’s flown colleagues to weddings and sports events in her four-seat Cessna, arranged small-plane flights during international travel and introduced dozens of teens to flying through her aviation classes at Edgewood High School. Thanks to Ballweg, some Edgewood alums are commercial and military pilots, airport architects and flight instuctors.
Life-changing support quietly emerges in additional ways too: Just ask photographer John Kincaid of Verona.
About 5,700 miles separate Madison from Bora Bora in French Polynesia, but Kincaid is closing that gap because of Ballweg’s investment and inspiration. He’s producing an eight-part series and is ready to approach streaming services with the project.
The series is broken into themes, such as change and loss. Primary subjects range from a three-generation pearl farm to a stingray named Juliet who is loved like a dog. The underlying theme of the project is treating people, animals and the planet with more respect. Kincaid says the Polynesian Islands series will demonstrate “how we’re more alike than different. Even animal life is so much closer to us than we think.”
“Diane is the reason why this got off the ground — she saw the big picture,” Kincaid adds.
And that’s always been Ballweg’s uncanny skill — seeing the potential of a person, nonprofit or project — and launching it into flight.
Freelance writer Mary Bergin met Diane Ballweg in 2003, during their goodwill trip of 10 women to Chiba, Japan, a Wisconsin sister city.
