The Michigan State University (MSU) Friends of Kresge raised $1 million for the $45 million Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at its annual Twilight in the Garden event.
The 46,000 square foot museum is being designed by world-renowned architect Zaha Hadid who also designed the Rosenthal Centre for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati and the Bergisel ski jump in Innsbruck. The museum is slated for a March 2010 groundbreaking.
“Our Make it a Million campaign really allowed the whole community to come together to support the university and support the arts in the Lansing area,” says Scott Sowulewski, co-president of Friends of Kresge.
MSU alumnus Eli Broad and his wife, Edythe, donated $18.5 million toward the construction of the museum, giving an additional $7.5 million to commission a signature sculpture and to provide funding for acquisitions, operations and endowment for a total gift of $26 million, the largest gift ever made to the university.
“These donations are evidence of the community’s embrace of the museum,” says Susan J. Bandes, director of the Kresge Art Museum. “The support we receive from our donors shows their understanding of the importance of enhancing mid-Michigan’s cultural profile and of how this new signature building can contribute to economic and cultural tourism.”
The groundbreaking will be followed by 23 months of construction and a 2012 museum opening.
Source: MSU
Ivy Hughes is the managing editor of Capital Gains and can be reached here.
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