New Museum Los Gatos obtained a $1 million donation final week, the biggest within the museum’s historical past.
The reward, from Mike and Alyce Parsons, will create an endowment for the museum that can generate curiosity earnings for the museum.
“This endowment helps to make sure that the museum is round for future generations. This can be a great way for Los Gatans to assist assist this vital cultural cornerstone,” Mike Parsons mentioned.
“We really feel actually enthusiastic about the concept that the museum is the one museum on the town, and Los Gatos is such an ‘arty’ type of city,” Alyce Parsons mentioned. “The library, which is our different massive curiosity, has the one bookstore on the town.”
The Parsons have been longtime supporters of the museum, and Mike served on NUMU’s board of administrators from 2006 to 2018 and as board president in 2012.
Mike helped to create ArtNow, NUMU’s Santa Clara County-wide juried exhibition of highschool artwork, greater than a decade in the past.
“The artwork that reveals up is simply unbelievable. We’re most likely most happy with that; it’s been going 11 years,” Mike mentioned. “We get a glimpse into up and coming artists and see them at an early age. It’s simply actually unbelievable.”
The couple, who're celebrating their sixtieth wedding ceremony anniversary this December, mentioned their love for the humanities and schooling began once they had been in faculty and would go to museums collectively in San Francisco
“We might stay within the museums each Saturday and Sunday. We’d go to San Francisco and go to the museums, so then we blossomed from there,” Alyce mentioned.
NUMU Govt Director Ami Davis mentioned that whereas the endowment will assist to assist the museum for years to return, the museum nonetheless wants donations to maintain up with its day-to-day actions.
NUMU representatives advocated for extra funding for the museum over the previous few months, and the city council granted it yet one more 12 months of hire forgiveness. That would imply the museum should begin paying hire in 2024 if city council doesn’t make any adjustments.
The museum is taking up bigger exhibitions and programming initiatives like artwork remedy, rising artist showcases and curating the city’s assortment of historic artifacts.
“We're honored to be part of the Parsons’ unbelievable legacy,” mentioned NUMU Board President Jan Schwartz. “Due to Mike and Alyce’s sustained generosity, our museum will proceed to develop and meet the wants of the Los Gatos group and past. We're extraordinarily grateful for this degree of visionary assist.”
The Parsons assist a wide range of native organizations and initiatives, together with the Los Gatos Library, San Jose Museum of Artwork and West Valley School.
New Museum Los Gatos was based in 1965 because the Museums of Los Gatos.