This week, the Columbus, Ohio–based museum is announcing a major new gift from the Scantland family: 27 works by 27 prominent emerging and mid-career artists—the beginnings of the museum’s Scantland Collection—and a $2 million endowment that will fund the Scantland Family Executive Deputy Director of Learning, Experience, and Engagement position.
The Scantland family’s gift reflects the influential role that private collectors continue to play in public institutions. This ongoing commitment to donate a significant number of works by living artists, within years of the pieces being made, is certainly novel. And within the broader landscape of American museums’ efforts to create greater representation for historically marginalized artists, the Scantland Collection—which foregrounds BIPOC, female-identifying, and LGBTQ+ artists—will undoubtedly invigorate the CMA’s permanent collection, and its programming more broadly.