Phoenix Art Museum has received a $5 million gift from Arizona philanthropist, physician and biotechnology executive Sukumar Nagendran to establish a permanent initiative devoted to Sri Lankan and South Asian art. The gift will create the Nagendran Gallery for the Art of Sri Lanka and South Asia and name the museum’s Asian art wing in Nagendran’s honor.
The donation will expand the museum’s dedicated Art of Asia galleries to more than 9,500 square feet and provide ongoing support for acquisitions, exhibitions, scholarly research and public programming. Nearly one-fifth of the museum’s collection consists of works by artists who live, work or originated in Asia, spanning more than 1,000 years.
The new initiative builds on Phoenix Art Museum’s existing collection of historical Sri Lankan art, developed in part through its relationship with Phoenix collectors Coleene and Barry Fernando and the late Quintus Fernando. Those holdings include Buddhist sculptures, paintings, illustrated palm-leaf manuscripts and photographs by Quintus Fernando. Nagendran’s gift will allow the museum to expand its focus to contemporary Sri Lankan artists and support future artist residencies, research and international partnerships.
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