Studio Museum in Harlem gets $10 million grant

The Ford Foundation President, Darren Walker, announced a $10 million grant for the Studio Museum of Harlem; this occurred during the museum’s annual gala on Monday, Oct. 28.  A diverse group of artists, art professionals, trustees, patrons, and members of the museum’s enthused and resolute community marking the occasion came together to support artists of African descent.

The gift will permanently endow the New York institution’s director and chief curator’s role, held by Thelma Golden for nearly 20 years.

According to Ford Foundation’s President Walker, “It is especially fitting to endow the leadership position of the director and chief curator when the inimitable Thelma Golden is about to celebrate 20 years of proving to be the art world’s exemplary leader for courageous change.”

In continuing his remarks, Mr. Walker said that for more than half a century, the Studio Museum of Harlem has been a vital platform for multiple generations of outstanding artists of African descent. Thus, it has opened vast and new opportunities for scholarships, creativity, and appreciation in the visual arts.

The Ford Foundation president commented, “The museum is one of America’s cultural treasures.”

In thanking the Ford Foundation for its continued support, Thelma Golden said: “All of us at the Studio Museum of Harlem are grateful for the Foundation’s extraordinary generosity—and I am personally deeply moved to be the first person within the institution to take up the title of the Ford Foundation director and chief curator.”

Since assuming the director and chief curator position at the museum in 2005, Golden has been credited for increasing visitors’ attendance by 27% by extending the museum’s hours on Thursdays and Fridays. In addition, the 2015 museum expansion, with years of delayed construction, was also guided by the direction of director Thelma Walker. Her commitment to this expansion amplifies the highly anticipated and spectacular changes expected, and one the museum will exhibit when it reopens in the fall of 2025.

Ms. Golden said she is “deeply committed to welcoming audiences and working with artists in the new building when we open.”

In acknowledging the contribution of the Ford Foundation to the Studio Museum of Harlem, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Studio Museum, Raymond J. McGuire, said, “Given the exemplary, visionary resolve that we have come to expect of Darren Walker and the Ford Foundation, this extraordinary grant comes at a critical moment for the Studio Museum, as we get close to completing our three-hundred million dollar campaign goal for our new home.  We are poised to fulfill this goal. When we do, we will think of the Ford Foundation’s endowment grant as era-defining.”

The timing of the Ford Foundation grant to strengthen the Studio Museum was ideal. The New York Times first reported that director Thelma Golden was considered the top contender in the Museum of Modern Art’s (MoMA) ongoing search for a new director.