The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) has received a grant from the John William Pope Foundation for $500,000 to name one of the Museum’s gallery spaces. The Museum’s Gallery 2, a 2,800-square-foot multipurpose temporary exhibition gallery, will now be named the Joyce W. Pope Gallery in memory of the late Joyce W. Pope.
“We are incredibly grateful for the generous support from the John William Pope Foundation,” says Museum Director Lawrence J. Wheeler. “With Joyce W. Pope’s passion for and support of the arts, this is the perfect way to honor her memory.”
Joyce W. Pope was president of the Pope Foundation from 1986 to 1992. She was a fixture in Raleigh as she supported her husband, John, while he grew Variety Wholesalers, Inc., from five stores into one of the largest retailing chains in the Southeast. Joyce was a dedicated patron of arts, serving as a founding member of the Raleigh Fine Arts Society.
“This is a wonderful way to honor my mother’s dedication to the arts,” says John William Pope Foundation Chairman Art Pope. “She would be humbled. But I also think she would be delighted to know that many visitors, particularly student visitors, will continue to enjoy fine works of art during their Museum trips in a gallery that bears her name.”
The first exhibition to be presented in the new Joyce W. Pope Gallery is American Impressionist: Childe Hassam and the Isles of Shoals, which opens on March 19. Past exhibitions presented in the gallery space include Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester and the Creative Mind, Edvard Munch: Symbolism in Print, and Object of Devotion: Medieval English Alabaster Sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Naming opportunities provide unrestricted general operating support to the Museum to offer a wide variety of exhibitions, concerts, lectures, and educational programming to the people of North Carolina. Seventy percent of the Museum’s budget used for operations and programming is provided to the Museum through private contributions from individuals, corporations, and foundations. The remaining 30 percent is provided through appropriations from the State.