The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) has received a $20m gift from the Philadelphia philanthropists Lois G. and Julian A. Brodsky to create a new education space, The Art Newspaper reported on 23 October. The paper says the money will fund the Lois G. and Julian A. Brodsky Learning and Engagement Center, intended to strengthen the museum’s work with students, children and families in the region.
What Is Planned
According to the report, the centre will occupy the museum’s north wing and cover about 19,000 sq. ft, with multi-purpose spaces and art studios. MGA Partners, the Philadelphia architecture firm that led the 2017 redesign of the museum’s auditorium, is due to unveil the design next year. The Art Newspaper describes the centre as the museum’s first major capital project since the $233m renovation and expansion by Frank Gehry, which was completed in 2021.
Daniel Weiss, the museum’s director, is quoted as calling it “a dedicated, dynamic education hub”. He said the centre will create learning experiences grounded in the museum’s collection, which the report puts at roughly 245,000 works.
The Audience and the Donors
The Art Newspaper notes that the museum offers free admission to visitors aged 18 and under and welcomes about 36,000 students a year from Philadelphia and neighbouring cities and states.
The Brodskys have a long record with the institution, according to the report. Lois Brodsky joined the museum as a volunteer in 1982, was a weekday guide from 1986 to 2019 and sits on its committee for conservation, European art, prints, drawings and photographs. Julian Brodsky, a co-founder of Comcast Corporation, joined the museum’s board in 1995 and became a trustee emeritus in 2024. The couple funded the 2019 reinstallation of the museum’s 19th-century European painting galleries, and the Brancusi gallery was renamed the Lois Green Brodsky Gallery after the museum’s 125th-anniversary campaign.
Why It Matters
In our view, the announcement shows a large museum directing a major gift towards the people who visit, and the young in particular. The gift is a commitment to build, and the design is still to be shown, so the centre’s final shape, timetable and programmes remain open questions. Even so, a dedicated space for school groups and families is a practical way of building on the museum’s free admission for visitors aged 18 and under, and the student numbers the report cites suggest there is an established audience ready to use it.
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