Displaying items by tag: fundraising

The Pérez Art Museum has picked Franklin Sirmans as its next director. He brings to the table fund-raising success, experience in four major U.S. markets (Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York, at MoMA PS1 and the Brooklyn Museum, and Houston), a curatorial focus on contemporary art—and even art journalism experience as the former U.S. editor of Flash Art and Editor-in-Chief of ArtAsiaPacific.

He may need that varied bag of tricks to draw focus to the Pérez Museum (in any month but December, when Art Basel Miami Beach descends on the city), to boost its profile and attendance within the crazily museum-rich town and to raise both operating funds and its good will with the locals.

A JMW Turner street scene described as the greatest painting of Oxford will remain in the city after the Ashmolean Museum raised the money to buy it in just four weeks.

The High Street, Oxford, by Turner, was left to the British nation in lieu of inheritance tax, but its value of £3.5m was more than the tax due. That led to a fundraising campaign by the Ashmolean, where the painting has been on loan from a private collection since 1997.

The Speed Art Museum will re-open in March of next year. On Wednesday morning, museum officials made the announcement. Officials also spoke about the Speed 365 public fundraising campaign.

The Speed Art Museum has been closed since 2012, as it undergoes a $50 million multi-phase expansion and renovation, that includes a new North Building, art park and a public piazza. The expansion nearly 80,000 square feet of renovation and 75,000 square feet of new construction.

The Cleveland Museum of Art announced a $19 million campaign challenge gift from trustee and Dealer Tire CEO Scott Mueller, which nearly completes the institution's decade-long capital fundraising effort. When combined with Mueller's initial campaign commitment of $1 million, three $1 million restricted gifts, and his annual contributions, at more than $23 million, he ranks among the top donors in the museum's history.  

"Mr. Mueller's historic commitment represents the capstone of our capital campaign. We are simply in awe of his generosity and believe that these gifts further establish his standing among Cleveland's storied philanthropists," said Cleveland Museum of Art director William Griswold. "Mr. Mueller's giving has impacted so many dimensions of the museum's work and reinforces everything we're trying to accomplish."

Nearly one million euros is needed to restore the Monte-Cristo castle that was once home to famed novelist Alexandre Dumas, author of classics including "The Three Musketeers."

The castle in northern France has fallen into disrepair and is threatened by humidity.

The current managers of the estate say 921,000 euros ($1.0 million) is needed to get it back in shape.

The municipal association that runs the estate is looking for public contributions to help with the restoration. If they can raise five percent of the funds, they will get further help from the national Heritage Foundation.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver has raised $8.5 million in a fundraising effort to eliminate the debt it incurred during construction.

The Prosperity Campaign was launched it 2012. This recent fundraising reduces the museum's total bank liability from $11.8 million when the building was completed in 2007 to a current level of $2.7 million.

James Turrell, a contemporary artist best known for his groundbreaking exploration of light, color, and space, has announced that he will allow a select group of people to visit the Roden Crater -- his unfinished land art masterpiece. Turrell conceived the project in 1974, and in 1977, he acquired the 400,000-year-old extinct volcanic crater located near northern Arizona’s Painted Desert. Turrell has spent decades transforming the inner cone of the Roden Crater into a monumental work of art and naked eye observatory that will, according to Turrell’s website, “link visitors with the celestial movements of planets, stars, and distant galaxies.”

The Roden Crater will be open to a limited number of people from May 14, 2015, to May 17, 2015, as part of a fundraising event. Intended for “serious patrons of the arts,” attendees are required to donate $5,000 to Turrell’s nonprofit, the Skystone Foundation, which is responsible for the fundraising, administration, and realization of the Crater project.

Patience, says architect Annabelle Selldorf, is a virtue she’s acquired over time.

That’s fortunate, as it’s probably going to be at least 2019 before the renovation she is designing for the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego is completed. More fundraising ($50 million for the project; $20 million for an operating endowment), more permitting and more planning has to be accomplished before construction could start in 2017.

“We’re finding our way, and we’ll do whatever it takes, come here as frequently as they will allow us, and develop the design little by little as funds become available, as permits are within reach,” said Selldorf, who was engaged by the museum nearly a year ago. “It’s a long process, but I feel the path is very clear.”

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum director Anne Hawley, whose 25-year tenure began with a notorious art heist and culminated in a successful $180 million capital campaign, announced Wednesday that she plans to step down at the end of the year.

Hawley said she has been quietly weighing the decision for two years now, as the museum completed fund-raising efforts that included $114 million for the museum’s sleek 2012 expansion, designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano, and an additional $50 million to fortify the museum’s endowment.

The Victoria and Albert Museum has raised funds to buy four bronze angels originally designed for the tomb of Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Henry VIII's influential advisor. The V&A said last year it would cost £5 million to secure the figurines.

The statues are "a vital part of our national history and artistic heritage," director Martin Roth said. The cardinal, who appears in Hilary Mantel's novel Wolf Hall - currently being shown on BBC1 - died in 1530.