Record Gift of $10 Million for MOCA

The Museum of Contemporary Art has received a $10-million donation from trustee Dallas Price. The gift--the single largest donation in the museum’s 20-year history--will be used to support operations and endowment, director Jeremy Strick said, in making the announcement on Tuesday.

“It’s just an amazing thing,” Strick said of the gift. A $10-million donation for any purpose would be cause for celebration at MOCA, but a large gift earmarked for the museum’s long-term health and welfare--rather than for a new building or program bearing the donor’s name--is particularly appreciated, he said.

“This is a landmark gift that is rare and exemplary because it demonstrates an understanding of the museum’s goals and needs and ambitions,” Strick said. “It will help us expand MOCA’s commitment to artists, collection, exhibition and programs of enduring benefit. We’re really on a high here.”

The donation will be paid in $1-million installments over the next 10 years. When added to smaller pledges, the Price gift will bring the museum’s endowment to more than $50 million, Strick said.

Price, who is co-owner, vice president and a board member of American Golf Corp., has served on the museum’s board of trustees since 1993 and has donated more than $1.4 million to MOCA during her tenure. Price said she had been planning a substantial gift to the museum for a long time, but recently decided that this is the right moment.

“I really am doing it in honor of Richard Koshalek [MOCA’s former director] and in celebration of Jeremy Strick,” Price said. “It’s a turning point for the museum. We have had this incredible leadership from Richard, who was key in building the museum to what it is. Now Jeremy has stepped in and taken over the lead to what we feel will be a glorious future.

“Most often when you have an opportunity to bequeath things, you do it when you die,” she said. “That was originally my intent, but then I thought, no, I would like to see things happen while I am still here to enjoy it. MOCA is a wonderful, exciting, very viable contemporary museum, and I would like to see it grow while I am still very active and involved in it.

“It may not seem terribly exciting to give money to pay the electric bill,” she said, “but I thought it was time to make things happen for the museum and the community. I would love to see other people get involved as they are able.”

Strick, who succeeded Koshalek in July, said he thought one factor in the timing of Price’s gift was her involvement in the museum’s strategic planning last summer and fall. “We are expanding in areas like visitor services, education, public outreach and marketing. This gift is going to help in all those initiatives,” he said. “She is also interested in our engagement with new media, digital media. So her gift is going to support a number of areas that the museum is moving into, in addition to our long-established programs.”

Price agreed. The planning sessions “broadened [the trustees’] thinking and opened up our minds to the potential for the museum,” she said. “It came at the right time for change, when Jeremy was new. I think it will have a very positive impact on the museum and its leadership.” Declining to name any individual program that sparked her interest, she said: “It’s just a road map that will carry us into the future, an exciting one.”