The Clyfford Still Museum has raised more than $17 million toward the $33 million it needs for the design and construction of a planned building just west of the Denver Art Museum to house works by the famed abstract expressionist, institution officials announced Wednesday.
Now that the museum has passed the halfway mark in raising building funds, it is moving into the public portion of the campaign and beginning to focus on national donors. They are expected to pay for about a third of the cost.
“We haven’t aggressively been approaching funders out of this area, but that is our plan in this next phase,” said director Dean Sobel.
Major contributions so far include $4 million from the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, $3.25 million from the Anschutz Foundation and $500,000 from the Boettcher Foundation.
In addition to construction funds, the museum has raised $2.7 million for museum operations until the 2010 opening of its building.
It has a staff of five, who are housed in the Webb Municipal Office Building.
A portion of that money, including grants from the Henry Luce Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts’ Save America’s Treasures, will cover beginning conservation of the institution’s holdings.
The museum also has raised $5 million for an endowment, including a $500,000 gift from the Chambers Family Fund and a $1 million promised bequest from Vail art collectors Kent and Vicki Logan. No endowment goal has been set.
“That is a start,” Sobel said. “By the time we opened, if we had $10 million, I think we’d be happy.
The building is expected to contain about 30,000 square feet, Sobel said, but dimensions could change.
The design, being overseen by Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture, is expected to be revealed in late winter or early spring.
In 2004, Patricia Still, the artist’s widow, agreed to donate his estate to Denver. When she died in 2005, the city received a bequest of 400 more works plus the artist’s archives.
The museum will house about 2,400 of his works — about 94 percent of everything he created.
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
