The Art of Giving—A Wish List

• $15,000 will clean and dramatically improve the appearance of the arms and armor on view in the Museum’s galleries.
• $15,000 will fund a new sputter coater, used to coat samples from art works before they are analyzed in the Museum’s scanning electron microscope. The sputter coater is used on a daily basis because almost all of the objects that are studied in the laboratory are analyzed with the electron microscope.
• $13,000 will provide for a new Zeiss binocular microscope, which will be used daily for treatment and examination in the Objects Conservation Laboratory.
• $10,000 will support the purchase of an anoxia bubble, a portable device critical to the Museum’s integrated pest management system. The bubble will, by creating an oxygen-free microenvironment that kills insects, help conservators safely and effectively destroy any pests that might be present in works of art composed of organic materials, such as furniture, paintings on wood panels, and textiles.
• $8,500 will provide a portable spectrophotometer, which would be used to measure color shifts or fading over time in vulnerable materials (for example, color photographs) as well as to identify colors in works of art, using defined and repeatable measurements (for example, the printing inks used in chiaroscuro woodcuts).
• $3,000 will fund a flatbed scanner, enabling paper conservators to scan radiograph images of watermarks. Watermarks provide critical evidence in determining the origin of works on paper.
• $4,000 will purchase tablet PCs and a computer application enabling the creation of field condition reports on objects at other museums and in private collections. The equipment enables curators and conservators to specifically document and illustrate the conservation needs of an object before it can be added to the Museum’s collection or shown in an exhibition.
• $2,000 will purchase an optical tube and replacement camera for basic image documentation on the Museum’s Zeiss inverted-stage metallographic microscope.
• $1,500 will fund a drying oven, glassware, and reaction vials that must be used for the instrumental analysis of microscopic samples from works of art.
• $1,200 will purchase a small laboratory-grade freezer needed for the storage of unstable chemicals and reference materials that are prone to degradation, such as unsaturated fatty acids in oils and plant resin components.
• $900 will fund a high-precision, grinding carbon rod for the Museum’s scanning electron microscope, which allows the examination of samples at very high magnification (300,000 times).
• Gifts of $450 to $550 will help upgrade the Conservation Department’s camera equipment, used for visual documentation of objects in the collection, including infrared images.
• Gifts of any size will support conservation technicians who assist the Museum’s curators.

• Art Speaks
  Art Speaks is a new initiative that makes an art museum visit available to every 4th grade student in the Philadelphia public schools. For most of these students, Art Speaks will be their first visit to an art museum. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is committed to funding admission, transportation, contract museum educators, and teacher trainers in order to make Art Speaks possible each year. We gratefully invite you to support this exciting new initiative.
  • Support a Student: $50 will support all Art Speaks costs for one fourth grader. $500 will support 10 students. $1,000 will support 20 students.
  • Support a Class: $1,500 will fund one fourth grade class.
  • Support a School: $5,000 will fund an entire elementary school (approximately 3 to 4 fourth-grade classes).
  • Fund 10 buses: $1,800 will pay for 10 buses to transport fourth graders to a museum.
• $15,000 will support Art Futures, a program which connects working artists with high school art classes to develop unique semester-long studio projects.
• $15,000 will support two important teen programs: High School Sketch Club, which enables public and charter school students interested in art careers to develop their portfolios by working with professional artists, and Teen Docents, which enables teens to learn about art and develop public-speaking skills through interaction with visiting families.
• A gift of $10,000 will support the Museum’s film series which includes: “Film for All,” presenting feature-length films screened in the main building’s Van Pelt Auditorium on important artists, movements, themes, and historical events, and “Film at Perelman,” a series of shorter-length films by and about artists in the Perelman Media Room.
• $10,000 will fund the Family Studio Program for one year.
• $9,000 will purchase laptops and projectors so that Museum Guides can present illustrated lectures in nursing homes, community centers and hospitals.
• $7,000 will provide one themed Family Day.
• $7,500 will support “Music in the Galleries” which presents gifted young musicians from the Curtis Institute of Music.
• A gift of $3,000 will fund the purchase of nine new wheelchairs.
• $2,500 will support Admission Passes for low-income individuals with disabilities.

• Give a gift of $1,000 and above to support Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective and become a “Friend of Arshile Gorky” with associated benefits.

• Gifts of all sizes can help acquire critical books to enhance the Library’s collection. Give a gift to the Library acquisition fund and a bookplate with the name of the person you wish to honor will be placed inside the new book.
• $20,000 will fund cataloguing of the “Volunteer Library,” which is made up of nearly 3,500 volumes and which supports the research and reference needs of the Museum Guides.

• Gifts of all sizes will purchase storage equipment for the new Hamilton Center for Costume and Textiles.
• Gifts of all sizes will purchase art books and other resources for use by teachers at the Wachovia Education Resource Center.

For more information, please contact Development by phone at (215) 684-7750, by fax at (215) 236-0796, or by e-mail at .