US National Gallery of Art receives $116m gift to continue nationwide lending programme

The National Gallery of Art (NGA) in Washington, DC, received a $116 million gift from the Mitchell P. Rales Family Foundation to endow its Across the Nation lending program permanently, the largest gift to endow programming in the museum’s history. Launched in spring 2025, the program has already reached about 900,000 visitors through long-term, no-cost loans to ten partner institutions, with the NGA covering transport, installation, insurance, and regional marketing. The next cycle will run from autumn 2027 through 2029, with new partner museums to be announced. Donor Mitchell P. Rales, a longtime NGA trustee and board president from 2019 to 2024 and co-founder of Glenstone, framed the gift as tied to expanding access ahead of the United States’ 250th anniversary; the article also notes the NGA closed its diversity office after an executive order Trump signed on the first day of his second term.

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