The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) announces a major donation from The Lynch Foundation to establish an endowment for the museum’s changing exhibition program. A pledge of $5 million ensures that PEM will be able to present compelling, meaningful and cutting-edge exhibitions for decades to come. This generous gift supports PEM’s landmark Advancement Campaign.
“This enlightened approach to giving is the bedrock of institutional sustainability and enables PEM to continue to create art and cultural experiences that materially impact people’s lives by expanding their view of themselves and the wider world,” says Dan L. Monroe, The Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Director and CEO of the museum. “We are deeply grateful to The Lynch Foundation for believing in our mission and supporting the museum’s innovative exhibition program that has touched millions of lives globally.”
Since 2009, PEM’s exhibitions have travelled to 16 museums across the U.S. and abroad and it has co-organized exhibitions with organizations in Great Britain, The Netherlands and China. The museum’s curatorial team boasts expertise in diverse arenas of global art and culture and is credited with organizing highly popular, award-winning exhibitions, such as: Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination; Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art; Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection; The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City and Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel.
“As an active board member for nearly two decades, I’ve witnessed first-hand the tremendous growth and ambition of this museum,” says Carolyn A. Lynch, president and chairman of The Lynch Foundation. “Guided by a bold curatorial vision, PEM’s exhibitions are able to make an indelible impact on the creative economy and are vital to the global conversation about art and ideas.”
Thanks to the generosity of The Lynch Foundation, PEM is organizing a diverse array of forthcoming exhibitions that will tour nationally and internationally, including: American Epics: Thomas Hart Benton and Hollywood — the first major exhibition of Thomas Hart Benton (1889-1975) in more than 25 years — #Strandbeest — the first North American tour of Theo Jansen’s famed kinetic sculptures — as well as Asia in Amsterdam, organized in partnership with the Rijksmuseum, which explores the impact that Dutch trade in Asia had on the art and culture of the Netherlands in the 17th century.
