Description

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is in dire need of ready funds to retain and support staff at this moment of severe earned-revenue losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the letter attached here, Mass MoCA’s director, Joe Thompson, requests an emergency grant of $250,000 to directly support salaries of staff across the museum. With this email, I wholeheartedly recommend approval of the proposed emergency grant. The funds would be drawn from the American Art Program’s 2020 allocation.
 
The Luce Foundation first partnered with Mass MoCA in its earliest years, with support for its seminal Sol Lewittt installation. More recently, the American Art Program supported the long-term installation of works by James Turrell in the newly renovated Building Six. Mass MoCA is a unique institution and venue that continues to do progressive and transformative public-facing work, and it has become an economic mainstay for an under-resourced region.
 
The Foundation’s support of the Mass MoCA’s talented and highly committed staff at this unprecedented moment, through this emergency grant, is a rapid and effective way to assist them in keeping their staff whole and active through these months of unprecedented challenges to the museum sector.