The University of California at Los Angeles’s Fowler Museum announced that it received a donation of $1 million from art collectors Jay and Deborah Last. The couple has previously given the institution more than 600 works of art. The museum is currently looking to raise over $28 million in a fundraising campaign. It hopes to receive half of that sum from other donors because the Lasts have pledged to match up to $14 million.
“Those of us who believe in preserving world arts and cultures must do everything we can to sustain and grow the museum,” Jay Last said. “Deborah and I hope that our gift will inspire other donors to give to this cultural gem in Los Angeles.” Jay Last is one of the founders of Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation and is president and founder of Hillcrest Press, a California art books publishing company. He is also an avid collector of African art and has gifted more than 300 works from the Lega peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the museum.
APRIL 22, 2016
Walton Foundation Donates $10 Million to the National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art announced today that the Walton Family Foundation—a philanthropic organization established by Walmart founders Sam and Helen Walton—has gifted the institution $10 million in honor of American art scholar and museum professional John Wilmerding.
A Walton Foundation board member, Alice Walton, said, “Through John’s efforts at the National Gallery of Art, there has been a renewed interest in American artists and their work.”
The grant will establish the John Wilmerding Fund for Education in American Art, which will support new programs, academic internships, digital initiatives, and an annual symposium. The inaugural Wilmerding Symposium will be take place in October.
Director of the National Gallery, Earl A. Powell III, said that Wilmerding is “one of the nation’s pre-eminent American art scholars” and that the fund will “significantly strengthen the gallery's efforts to engage our visitors and expand our reach to new audiences in educating them about this country’s rich artistic heritage.”
Wilmerding started working at the National Gallery in 1977 as its first curator of American art and would later be promoted to senior curator. He became deputy director in 1983 and would lead the institution for five years before leaving to work as a professor at Princeton University. From 2005 to 2013, Wilmerding returned to the gallery to serve as a trustee, during which time he spent five years as chairman. He has contributed to numerous exhibitions and publications and serves as a trustee for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. In 2004, he promised the National Gallery of Art a gift of fifty works of nineteenth-century American art from his own collection.
American Businessman Leonard Blavatnik donated a confidential sum believed to be millions of pounds to the Victoria and Albert Museum, Martin Bailey of the Art Newspaper reports.
Blavatnik has made major donations to many prominent art institutions including the Tate, the National Portrait Gallery, the Royal Academy of the Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The museum announced it will name the entrance hall of the new Amanda Levete-designed extension after the patron. The over-$70-million project will include a new entrance and a large temporary exhibition gallery, which is expected to open next spring.
Blavatnik was born in the Ukraine and grew up in Moscow before he emigrated to the US where he was granted citizenship. According to Forbes, Blavatnik has assets in commodities production, technology, and media. His investments range from post-Soviet aluminum and energy companies, Russian oil companies, Rocket Internet, to Beats Music and fashion brand Tory Burch. In 2010 he donated $117 million to Oxford University to build a business school and in 2011 he acquired Warner Music. He recently moved to London and last year was named the UK’s richest man.
APRIL 21, 2016
David Geffen Gives $100 Million to Museum of Modern Art in New York
Los Angeles–based philanthropist David Geffen has given a $100 million donation to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The money will support its renovation and expansion. It is the largest amount given yet to these endeavors.
Three floors of new galleries, part of the museum’s expansion into the tower being built to the west at 53 West Fifty-third Street, will be named the David Geffen Wing.
“My passion for art began while visiting the Museum of Modern Art as a young man. Art has been an important part of my life ever since, so I am delighted to lend my support to this exciting effort to celebrate the museum's history and contribute to its future.”
This is not the first time Geffen has given $100 million to a New York arts institution. Last year he gave the same amount to Lincoln Center, which announced that it would rename Avery Fisher Hall in his honor.
