By Juliet Williams, CNN • Updated 15th April 2011
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is jumping start its new contemporary art wing with a $125 million gift from an art patron.
The Giving Pledge’s James A. Dyson, who has been an active collector of contemporary art for more than 25 years, is donating $50 million to start the impressive new Arts for All wing, according to an announcement Thursday. The remainder will be given in five $25 million installments over five years.
The new wing, due to open in 2013, is part of a 20-year, $1 billion fundraising campaign. The museum’s Museum for Modern Art expansion and renovation was completed last year.
The Arts for All wing will include five new galleries for the museum’s already expansive contemporary collection. It is also designed to hold new exhibitions, according to director Thomas Campbell.
“The new gallery space will increase the museum’s capacity to mount wide-ranging exhibitions that will not only attract major, international exhibitions, but also create new engagement with its own collection,” Campbell said in a statement.
Other donors will fund the renovation of other sections of the museum, such as the existing galleries for drawings and prints, which are slated to reopen as galleries for photography, video and animation.