CU Art Museum Receives Largest Endowed Gift to Date
Contact: Lisa Tamiris Becker, 303-492-8003, Lisa.Becker@Colorado.edu
BOULDER, Colo. (Aug 20, 2007) – Don and Karen Ringsby recently designated a
portion of their charitable remainder trust to benefit the CU Art Museum. The trust is
currently valued at approximately $2.4 million of which $1.6 million will benefit the CU
Art Museum, the largest endowed donation the museum has ever received.
The endowed funding will provide support for the CU Art Museum’s exhibitions,
collections, and related programming of lectures, symposia, and gallery talks. The
landmark gift comes at a pivotal time, as the campus begins construction on a state-of-the-
art Visual Arts Complex (VAC). The VAC will house the nationally recognized CU
Art Museum and the Department of Art and Art History. The Visual Arts Complex will
also house the CU Art Museum’s permanent collection which includes over 5,000 works
of art representing numerous art-historical time periods, cultures, and artistic traditions.
“The CU Art Museum is a tremendous asset to the University and the broader
community,” said Karen Ringsby. “We hope that by bringing attention to this cultural
treasure right in Colorado, we might inspire others to contribute to the VAC campaign.”
Active supporters of the arts at CU Boulder, the Ringsbys are members of the CU Art
Museum’s Benefactor’s Salon group, an educational program focused on visiting private
collections and learning about art collected in our region. Karen Ringsby also currently
serves on the CU Art Museum’s Advisory Board and the Collections Committee.
“Don and Karen’s generous gift marks an important milestone for the CU Art
Museum and the arts on our campus,” said Lisa Tamiris Becker, Director of the CU Art
Museum. “Their gift will enable us to provide excellent exhibition and collections
programming for generations to come.”
If you would like more information about opportunities to support the CU Art
Museum and/or the Visual Arts Complex (VAC) please contact Micah Abram of the
University of Colorado Foundation at 303-541-1465 or Lisa Tamiris Becker, Director,
CU Art Museum at 303-492-8003.
Founded in 1967, the CU Foundation is the non-profit partner of the University of
Colorado whose mission is to raise, manage and invest private support for the benefit of
the University of Colorado. Our donors enable CU to reach its full potential to transform
lives through education, research, clinical care and community service. For more
information, visit www.cufund.org.
The University of Colorado is a three-university system with campuses in Boulder
and Colorado Springs, and a Denver and Health Sciences Center campus located in
downtown Denver and at the Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora. CU is a premier
teaching and research university, ranked sixth among public institutions in federal
research expenditures by the National Science Foundation. Academic prestige is marked
by CU’s four Nobel laureates, seven MacArthur “genius” Fellows, 18 alumni astronauts,
19 Rhodes Scholars and CU-Boulder’s ranking of 11th best public university and 34th
best overall university in the world by the Institute for Higher Education.