{"id":527993,"date":"2026-06-10T11:55:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/527993\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T11:55:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T11:55:10","slug":"the-phillips-collection-receives-largest-gift-in-museums-history-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/527993\/","title":{"rendered":"The Phillips Collection receives largest gift in museum\u2019s history – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Phillips Collection<\/a> in Washington, DC, has received a $15m gift from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, marking the largest gift in the museum\u2019s history. The foundation has made significant contributions to the museum since the late 1990s, including funding a wide range of initiatives that helped shape many of its most important milestones, like supporting the expansion and modernisation of its conservation studio in 2006.<\/p>\n

Since becoming the museum\u2019s director in 2023, Jonathan P. Binstock<\/a> has overseen a strategic planning process and substantial growth in the museum\u2019s leadership and board. This gift will advance several of the institution\u2019s core priorities, which includes deepening relationships with visitors, building financial resilience and investing in the infrastructure and staff needed for the museum to thrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I arrived, it was clear that the Phillips had extraordinary assets\u2014a world-class collection, a singular and prescient founder\u2019s vision, an intimate and beloved physical presence, and a deeply committed community of supporters,\u201d Binstock tells The Art Newspaper. \u201cWhat we needed was a clear-eyed plan for how to build on those strengths while addressing some long-deferred institutional needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Art-making activities at the Phillips@THEARC Photo courtesy of The Phillips Collection<\/p>\n

The gift emphasises infrastructure, staffing, conservation and digital systems. Of the $15m, approximately $12m will go toward strengthening the museum\u2019s endowment, including funds dedicated to long-term planning for maintenance and staff positions like conservation specialists. The conservation programme, which has overseen major projects like the technical study of Pablo Picasso\u2019s The Blue Room<\/a> (1901), will remain a \u201cleader in the field\u201d, Binstock says.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat exhibitions, educational and public programmes, and meaningful public engagement depend on systems, facilities and staff capacity to support that work. Several facets of our existing infrastructure were either at end-of-life or no longer able to support our needs and ambitions,\u201d Binstock says. \u201cThe foundation understood this instinctively. These aspects can be invisible and seem unglamorous to much of our public. To those of us on the inside, however, such investments are anything but.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Phillips@THEARC, the museum\u2019s satellite space at the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus, is also a key beneficiary. The gift will help fund the new annual Art-Play-Practice initiative, in which the museum will present an installation inspired by a work in its permanent collection. The inaugural installation will reference Sam Gilliam\u2019s seminal work Broad Cape (1972), in which the artist stained an unprimed canvas with pigments, allowing colour to bleed and pool across the surface and giving the work a sculptural quality.<\/p>\n

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Sam Gilliam, Broad Cape, 1972 Courtesy the Phillips Collection, Washington, DC. Gift of Harry and Monika Holmgren, 2023<\/p>\n

\u201cGilliam is one of the great artists of the 20th century, with deep roots in Washington, DC,\u201d Binstock says. \u201cMarjorie Phillips gave him his first solo museum exhibition in 1967, and Broad Cape is a magnificent example of his celebrated drape paintings, works in which Gilliam liberated the canvas from the stretcher and allowed it to exist in space as sculpture, as environment, as pure colour and form.\u201d<\/p>\n

As museums continuously grapple with rising operating costs and questions around sustainability, Binstock adds that the gift guarantees long-term growth and allows its operations to continue seamlessly.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur physical campus will be thoughtfully assessed, maintained and where necessary enhanced\u2014not to become something other than what it is, but to be the best possible version of itself,\u201d Binstock adds. \u201cAnd above all, the Phillips will be what Duncan Phillips always intended it to be: intimate, adventurous, welcoming, accessible and alive with the spirit of artists.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, has received a $15m gift from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, marking the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,1980,366,57578,18,117,19,17,7599,179791,2709],"class_list":["post-527993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-dc","tag-design","tag-donations","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-museums-heritage","tag-phillips-collection","tag-washington"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116725687074994930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}