Former Microsoft President Jon Shirley and his wife Kim are gifting a significant collection of works by sculptor Alexander Calder to the Seattle Art Museum.
The Shirley Family Calder Collection will be supported by a $10 million endowment and an annual financial commitment from the Shirleys to support Calder-related exhibitions and research, SAM said in a news release on Tuesday.
Called one of the most important collections of Calder’s work in private hands, the Shirleys’ gift features 48 works of art (one comprising seven lithographs) and 85 publications. The collection centers around a group of hanging and standing mobiles dating from the 1930s to the 1970s.
The collection, valued at approximately $200 million, will be the centerpiece of an ongoing series of annual exhibitions and programs. All 48 works will be featured in an exhibition beginning this November.
“I first fell in love with Calder (1898-1976) as a young man, creating a passion that has only grown with time,” Jon Shirley said in a statement. “From the moment I bought my first work 35 years ago, I treasured the experience of living with Calder and from that point built my collection very intentionally.”
Shirley joined Microsoft in 1983 as president, chief operator officer and director and is credited with overseeing the construction of the Microsoft headquarters campus in Redmond, Wash. He retired in 1990 and left the board of directors in 2008.
The Shirleys have long supported the Seattle Art Museum. Jon and Kim Shirley currently serve on the museum’s board of trustees, and Jon Shirley served as chairman of the Board of Trustees from 2000 to 2008.
“Unlike New York, our museums don’t exist because of tourism but because of local visitors,” Shirley told ARTnews. “Like many cities, our downtown is suffering because people are working from home. I was thinking of ways to energize the museum and bring in more people and bring people who might not otherwise come in the door.”
Jon Shirley and his late wife Mary provided the founding gift that led to the creation of the museum’s nine-acre Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle in 2007. Calder’s 38-foot sculpture “The Eagle” is a centerpiece of the park.
