The Ford Foundation has awarded the Studio Museum in Harlem a grant of $10 million to endow its director and chief curator, a position held for the last 20 years by Thelma Golden.
Ford’s president, Darren Walker, announced the grant on Monday at the museum’s annual gala, which honored Golden and promoted plans for the institution’s new home in fall 2025.
“The Studio Museum is the only one of New York’s great museums that does not have an endowed director position, which in my view has to be rectified,” Walker said in an interview.
“Thelma has elevated this position through her unwavering commitment to excellence and that her position is not endowed is a glaring problem in my view,” Walker added. “Black and brown cultural institutions have always been under-resourced and this is another such example.”
The Ford gift also helps shore up the institution’s future, so that it is not dependent on Golden herself, who is widely considered the front-runner in the search for the next director of the Museum of Modern Art, which is currently underway.
“This position naming is a testament to and acknowledgment of the six directors who came before me,” Golden said in an interview, “and also holds a real sense of possibility for the leaders who will come after.”
The position will now be titled the Ford Foundation Director and Chief Curator, in keeping with other major institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where Max Hollein is the Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer; MoMA, where Glenn D. Lowry is the David Rockefeller Director; and the Whitney Museum, where Scott Rothkopf is the Alice Pratt Brown Director.
The gift has financial as well as symbolic importance, since it helps cover compensation for the position. Directors are typically well-paid to attract and retain top talent.
While Walker and Golden have had a long friendship, Golden noted that Ford has supported the Studio Museum since its founding. Walker “has been an inspiration to me and my work from the beginning of my career,” she said.
Walker pointed out that other museums and foundation directors have close personal ties and that his friendship with Golden should not disadvantage the Studio Museum.
“At the Ford Foundation we invest in excellence, and by any objective standard the Studio Museum punches above its weight and is worthy of this kind of gift,” Walker said. “It has earned the right to have an endowed directorship.”
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