The RISD museum has received a $2.5 million gift from the Rockefeller family. The money will go to support the museum’s decorative arts department.
The decorative arts refer to objects which have practical uses as well as artistic value; such as furniture, silverware, and vases. In addition to the monetary gift, David Rockefeller, is donating about 43 objects from his personal collection. Museum director John Smith said the most important items include some eighteenth century English furniture.
“It’s something that we don’t have great examples of currently. So it fills a real void in terms of how we can interpret globally decorative arts and design,” said Smith.
The vast majority of the gift, $2 million, will endow a permanent curator of decorative arts. The other $500,000 will go toward renovating a new space for the museum’s decorative art collection.
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