$75,000,000 donation from Lin Lougheed (Turkey) to Art Institute
Hi, Lin, Thanks for your reply. I was fascinated to hear about your conservation efforts with the sabal lougheediana, so…
RPCVs in the news —
CHICAGO (CBS) — The Art Institute of Chicago is getting a new addition thanks to a $75 million donation.
The gift is courtesy of Aaron I. Fleischman and his husband, Dr. Lin Lougheed (Turkey 1968-70) —who have been art collectors for many years. The Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed Building will showcase modern art from the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as contemporary art.
The Art Institute of Chicago.CBS
The design and location of the new building have yet to be finalized, but it will be on the campus of the Art Institute that spans from Michigan Avenue east to Columbus Drive at Adams Street downtown. It will be designed to have views of Millennium Park, the downtown Chicago streetscapes, and Lake Michigan.
The gift from Fleischman and Lougheed is the largest single naming gift in Art Institute history.
“We are beyond grateful to collaborate with Aaron and Lin to imagine the future of our campus,” James Rondeau, President and Eloise W. Martin Director of the Art Institute of Chicago, said in a news release. “Their exceptional generosity and vision will allow our aspirations to become a reality and I am grateful for their dedication to Chicago, and to serving our visitors for generations to come.”
Fleischman began collecting art in the mid-1980s, and has been an Art Institute trustee for nearly 15 years. He has also loaned works to the Art Institute.
“The Art Institute of Chicago has one of the world’s great art collections,” Fleischman said in the release. “Lin and I are excited about naming a new building that will create additional space for visitors to see more of the collection than they have ever been able to see before, and for the museum to tell a more complete story of modern and contemporary art. Touring the collections on view and in storage I came to believe that more of the museum’s extraordinary collection needed to be available to visitors and presented in world-class architecture.”
The Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed Building will be part of a greater reimagining of the Art Institute campus using the Barcelona architectural term Barozzi Viega.
The last major addition to the Art Institute was the Modern Wing, designed by Rnzo Piano and situated on the north side of the campus for the museum — facing the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park.
The original Beaux Arts Art Institute building, flanked by its two famous bronze lions, dates back to 1893. A research library followed in 1901, followed by eight major expansions for gallery and administrative space beginning with a bridge across the Illinois Central Railroad tracks. The Goodman Theatre also began as part of the Art Institute campus in 1922, and remained there until moving to its current space at 170 N. Dearborn St. in the Loop.
The Art Institute now occupies about 1 million square feet, making it the second largest art institution in the U.S. after the Metropolitan Art Museum in New York City.
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Fleischman, 85, is recognized as a top collector of modern and contemporary American and European art. He is also an honorary trustee of the Met Museum in New York, and has also served on the boards of New York’s Whitney Museum of Art and several publicly-traded companies.
Fleischman is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and was a top-level Washington, D.C. attorney in the field of communications and related industries for many years. He founded his own Washington law firm that went on to explode in growth.
Lin Lougheed (Turkey 1968-70)
Lougheed, 78, has focused his career on international education. After college at UCLA, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey (1968-70), and then earned an MA in a joint program with the University of Tehran and the University of Illinois, the Art Institute said. He received his doctorate from Teachers College Columbia University and two Fulbright awards, and then worked as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer assigned to embassies worldwide.
See his biography at http://lougheed.com/lougheed_bio.php
Lougheed is also the author of more than 40 EFL/ESP texts and test prep materials. As part of the New York City Explorers Club, he also carried an Explorers flag to Madagascar — where his team discovered a new species of palm tree. A newly-identified palm tree in Bonair was also named sable lougheediana in his honor.
Aaron and Lin, Thank you for your gift of joy and renewal to millions of people you will never meet but whose lives you improve.
Hello, Lin,
Karl Drobnik just sent me an article from Peace Corps Worldwide, which give an account of your and Aaron’s spectacular gift to the Art Institute of Chicago. I’m happy to have news about you, and to learn that you clearly have been successful at many interesting endeavors.
I feel connected to your gift to the Art Institute because I grew up in Chicago and lived there until shortly before I met you in Algeria at INELEC. I even attended the Art Institute’s Saturday school. Also, before Karl sent me the article, I didn’t know that you had a connection with Turkey. Our daughter is married to an architect from Turkey (Izmir) and my grandsons go there every summer.
I am extremely impressed that you had such an extensive career in EFL/ESL publishing.
Congratulations to you, and I hope that everything continues to go so well!
Best wishes,
Sherry Abrams. M.A., J.D.
Thanks for your kind words, Sherry…. and what a career you’ve had! From INELEC to law and back to ESL.
I didn’t know PC Worldwide had picked up the news; in fact, I had never heard of the website.
One of my other “endeavors” is working with endangered palms. My pride is the sabal lougheediana from Bonaire which has gone from 25 palms in the world to almost 500 thanks to recent conservation efforts.
You should plan on a trip to Chicago in a few years to see the new building. The designs are stunning.
Best wishes to you, your family, and your Turkish in-laws.
Hi, Lin,
Thanks for your reply. I was fascinated to hear about your conservation efforts with the
sabal lougheediana, so I looked it up and found that it is quite beautiful, and now thriving.
You must have done an enviable amount of travel!
I definitely will visit the Art Institute in a couple of years to see the new addition. Who is, or was, your architect?
How did you know that I attempted to return to ESL/EFL/ESP teaching? It wasn’t in the message I sent you. I developed a program to teach the phonemes of English to young children worldwide; I also made a documentary called “Jack Can Talk”– great fun.
Again, congratulations on your wonderful gift to the Art Institute!
Best wishes to you and your family,
Sherry
Hi Lin,
I’ll add my congratulations to you for the good work you’re doing to make our society and our world better for everyone. But how could you not have heard of pcworldwide?
Regards,
Karl