Phillips Collection Lands $10 Million Gift, Its Largest from an Individual Donor

By Marcus Bennett

The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., has received a $10 million gift from Beatriz and Graham Bolton — the largest contribution by an individual donor in the museum's 105-year history. The money will launch the Beatriz and Graham Bolton Global Vision Fund, which will bankroll the museum's international ambitions and support its education department.

The fund will finance exhibitions, loans, and partnerships with museums, galleries, embassies, and cultural organizations worldwide. It will also endow the role of chief of education and responsive learning, a position that will carry the Boltons' name. The museum will rename its education gallery the Peggy Bolton Community Gallery, after Graham's mother.

Who are the donors behind the gift?

The Boltons are longtime supporters of the Phillips. Their earlier gifts funded the museum's 2019 Zilia Sánchez retrospective, its 2024 Bernardí Roig exhibition, and installations in the "Intersections" series by Los Carpinteros (2019) and Daniel Canogar (2021). They also backed the museum's Creative Aging program, which gives older adults living with memory loss direct experience with art. Beatriz Bolton joined the board of trustees in 2022 and now chairs its Institutional Culture and Civic Responsibility Committee.

"Beatriz and Graham want this to be an inspiration for others," Jonathan P. Binstock, the museum's director and chief executive, told ARTnews in a phone interview. "This is an institution they love dearly, and they want to show how one can support a mission and an institution that one loves dearly."

In an emailed interview, Beatriz Bolton said conversations about the gift began roughly a year ago and gained momentum after the Sherman Fairchild Foundation gave $15 million to the Phillips this past June. "It made me think about how Graham and I could make a lasting contribution," she said. "I believe generosity has a way of inspiring more generosity, and I hope our gift encourages others to join in supporting the Phillips."

The couple began visiting the museum several years ago, when their son Peter was living in Washington. "We immediately fell in love with its intimacy and the personal experience it inspires," Bolton said.

Her own path shaped the fund's international focus. Born in Havana, raised in Miami, and educated in Madrid — an "international lifestyle," as she described it — Bolton said: "Art is a universal language, and I believe museums should reflect the wonderfully diverse world we live in."

What does the fund change for the museum?

Binstock tied the fund's global purview to the museum's founder, Duncan Phillips, who established the collection in 1921 to raise American artists to the level of their European counterparts. "What Beatriz and Graham saw as a key opportunity for the Phillips was ensuring that we could continue to do this work, but in a much broader way," he said.

The fund also advances a key goal of the museum's 2025–29 strategic plan, which tasks it to "develop authentic relationships with audiences of all kinds." Binstock framed the challenge in practical terms: "Once folks from different cultural backgrounds show up at the Phillips Collection, how do we welcome them? How do we make them feel a part of the experience of the institution?" He singled out "supporting our guests for whom English may not be their first language."

One concrete test is already in motion. The museum is partnering with the Musée d'Orsay in Paris on a forthcoming exhibition, and fund money could cover the show's travel to Washington, visiting international scholars, programming with the French Embassy, and services for French-speaking visitors.

On education, Bolton said the couple believes "art is a form of education in itself. It teaches us to be curious, think differently, and see the world through someone else's eyes." Creative Aging, their first entry point at the museum, "demonstrates how art can enrich lives at every stage of life," she added.

At its core, she said, the fund aims to bring the Phillips to the world and the world to the Phillips. "The museum makes art personal and meaningful, and Graham and I were thrilled to find a way to advance a place we have come to love so sincerely."