February 20, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
How much: $10-million
Who gave it: Lizzie and Jonathan Tisch. Mr. Tisch is chief executive of Loews Hotels, based in New York.
Who got it: The Metropolitan Museum of Art for its Costume Institute.
What it is for: To build a 4,200 square-foot gallery so the institute can hold more exhibits than the one three-month display it now mounts annually.
Donors’ connection to the organization: Ms. Tisch is the chair of the Friends of the Costume Institute, a group that supports the department’s exhibition, acquisition, conservation, and publication programs.
How the gift came about: Harold Koda, the curator in charge of the institute, said that it has long planned to renovate the gallery and archival areas, and the plans were accelerated in December of 2008 when the Brooklyn Museum announced it would transfer its 23,500-piece costume collection to the Costume Institute. A year and a half ago, the Tisches said they would like to support the renovation of the department’s galleries.
Why the donors gave: They saw that the Costume Institute has “the opportunity to introduce the public to this extraordinary institution, that our department brings in such a broad demographic of people,” Mr. Koda says. “For many people, it’s rather intimidating to enter the precincts of the high arts. We’re one of those art forms for which there’s not that factor of chilly remove from their reality. With clothing, even if it’s a haute couture dress that most of us could never aspire to having, people can still have an opinion about it.”
