Comcast Cofounder Julian Brodsky Gives $20 Million to Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Philadelphia Museum of Art announced Friday that it has received $20 million from Comcast cofounder Julian A. Brodsky and his wife, Lois G. Brodsky — one of the largest gifts in the museum's history. The money will fund a new education center bearing the donors' name, the Brodsky Center, and it will more than triple the space the museum currently devotes to learning programs.

The numbers explain why the gift matters. The museum's existing education space measures under 6,000 square feet. Its education department employs just 16 staffers, full- and part-time combined, and that team currently serves roughly 36,000 students a year. The new center is designed to change that capacity equation.

What does the gift actually change?

The Brodsky Center will transform the museum's north wing. Initial plans include a family learning center, art studios, a visitor orientation area and a multipurpose community hub. Philadelphia architecture firm MGA Partners will handle the design, which the museum expects to complete by summer 2027, with construction finished within a few years after that.

This is the museum's first major capital undertaking since the Core Project, Frank Gehry's four-year renovation and expansion, which opened to the public in 2021.

"We don't have much in the way of dedicated space for education, so it's been slightly improvisational," director and CEO Daniel Weiss told ARTnews by phone. "Nonetheless, we have an active commitment to doing it. This gift will facilitate a higher level of commitment to the work and expand the number of people we can serve, and allow us to innovate new programs we don't have now because we don't have space. It's an obvious thing for a comprehensive museum like ours to have, but we don't have one."

The gift lands at a delicate moment for the institution. Weiss joined the museum last December after the board of trustees dismissed his predecessor. In an ARTnews profile published this month, Hilarie M. Sheets described him as "widely viewed as a smart and thoughtful straight shooter, skilled at solving organizational problems." He inherits a museum that ran a $10 million deficit for the 2025–26 fiscal year on a $76.5 million budget.

Who are the donors?

The Brodskys are longtime museum insiders. Julian Brodsky joined the board in 1995 and became an emeritus trustee in 2024; he remains vice chair of the library and archives committee. Lois Brodsky began volunteering at the museum in 1982 and sits on the committees for conservation, European art, and prints, drawings, and photographs.

Their institutional record runs deep:

• A gallery was named for them in 2005, recognizing their support of the museum's 125th-anniversary campaign.
• They endowed a photography curator position in 2009.
• Brodsky's net worth has not been publicly disclosed; Comcast's current market capitalization exceeds $81 billion.

"Lois and I are incredibly happy to support the new Learning and Engagement Center," Julian Brodsky said in press materials. "It comes at a wonderful moment, bringing together so many of the initiatives we are passionate about and reflecting our deep love for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Throughout our lives, we have been ardently involved in educational initiatives, with a particular focus on children and families from underserved communities."

How will the center serve visitors?

Audrey Hudson, the museum's deputy director for learning and engagement, framed the project in concrete operational terms. "The new Brodsky Center will be an intentionally designed, purpose-built space that inspires limitless educational experiences grounded in the PMA's collection," Hudson said in press materials. "It will address the museum's need for expanded capacity to host school groups, while providing dedicated spaces for programming and studios for hands-on learning."

With the design due by summer 2027, the museum has roughly two years to show how a $20 million intervention converts a 16-person department serving 36,000 students annually into something substantially larger.