About Us

The Arthur Ray Foundation is a Naperville-based non-profit organization created to help others (including other non-profit organizations) through the use of art and technology.  It was started by Gary Pradel who was trying to help as many non-profit organizations as he could by spending his off-hours helping them with art and technology tasks.

Art and technology are two areas not often associated.  However, moviemaking (Gary Pradel's passion) is a great example of the combination of art and technology to move and motivate people.  It's because of this that the foundation has geared up to use art and technology to help others.

One of the first projects we did was the Naperville Independent Film Festival which was a wonderful, fun event that is now an annual event.

Often people ask,"Who is Arthur Ray?"  The name "Arthur Ray" is a combination of many people whose personalities, talents, and humanity form the very heart of what Arthur Ray is all about.  These people include:

Arthur George Pradel   -  Gary Pradel's Father
George Arthur Pradel  -  Gary's Brother
Arthur Paul Pradel  - Gary's Grandfather

Ray Burke - Gary's other Grandfather
Brian Raymond Schultz  -  A very dear friend of Gary's

There are so many other people who have inspired the foundation.  These particular names kept repeating, so it made sense to to honor these people and all of the others by naming the organization for them.