Museum Launches American Collection

The Harvard Art Museum announced the successful completion of its campaign to raise money for permanently funding its department of American Art on Friday.

By raising $10.5 million, the museum surpassed its original goal by $500,000, museum officials said in a press release.

The money is allocated to fund the establishment of two new curatorships and to continue the operations of the Department of American Painting, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts.

The Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. Curatorship of American Art was endowed in honor of Ted Stebbins by over a dozen of his friends and supporters.

Stebbins has served as the head curator of American art at the University since its inception in 2002. In the past eight years, Stebbins has acquired 96 new pieces for the museum, including notable works by Jacob Lawrence, Georgia O’Keefe, Joseph Stella, and Arthur Dove.

The Diane and Michael Maher Assistant Curatorship of American Art will be established through the generosity of Diane and Michael Maher of Winter Park, Florida.

This assistant curatorship position is currently held by Virginia Anderson.

The campaign will also support the Benjamin Rowland Fund for American Art which was established in 2002 by John Wilmerding, a professor of American art at Princeton. Wilmerding studied at Harvard under Benjamin Rowland, a renowned art professor who served in Harvard’s Fine Arts department from 1930 to 1972. The fund will support ongoing activities of the department, including exhibitions, publications, and student internships.

The unexpected success of the campaign is an enormous asset to the American art at Harvard, museum officials said in a statement.

“It strengthens the University’s commitment to the arts,” Harvard Art Museum director Thomas W. Lentz said, “and we are enormously grateful to everyone who helped in this important effort.”