Renaissance ROM Campaign Reaches $238 Million

The Honourable Hilary M. Weston, Renaissance ROM Campaign Chair, announced today on behalf of the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) that a new $12 million gift from Robert Schad and family lifts the total raised to date by the Renaissance ROM Campaign to $238 million.

This comprises $213 million raised for the project's capital construction costs and a further $25 million for related program priorities of Renaissance ROM, such as endowments, curatorial positions and public programs.

Currently, total construction costs for the entire Renaissance ROM project are $250 million. This includes the completion of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal addition in 2007, and a further phase of renovated galleries within the ROM's historic buildings that will be complete by early 2009.

As the ROM enters the final stretch of the Renaissance ROM Campaign, today's announcement highlights the tremendous success and broad public engagement in the project thus far. This latest gift, which supports the creation of a new gallery, research and educational programs, exemplifies the positive impact of the Campaign throughout the Museum, not only in terms of capital expansion, but also in terms of curatorial support, endowments, public and school programs, acquisitions and research, and accessibility.

In recent months, the ROM has received numerous important gifts from government, corporations and individuals, including the announcement last March by the Ontario Government increasing its support of Renaissance ROM by $12 million to $42 million.

Illustrating the continued success of the Renaissance ROM project, several private-sector donors have made multiple gifts to the Campaign. Thor and Nicole Eaton, a member of the ROM Board of Governors, have made an additional $2.75 million gift, bringing their total support to $5 million. This includes the Eatons in the ROM's New Century Founders, a key group of Museum leaders announced last March, whose extraordinary generosity has placed them at the forefront of the Museum's 21st-century transformation through Renaissance ROM. As a result, the ROM will name the future Eaton Gallery of Rome.

Other examples of multiple gifts to the campaign include an anonymous additional gift of $2.5 million and ROM Governor Gwen Harvey, whose family foundation, the Patrick and Barbara Keenan Foundation, made a second gift to the campaign, bringing their total support to $1 million, and naming the Museum's popular Hands-On Biodiversity Gallery.

Several other significant individual and corporate gifts have been received recently. An unrestricted gift of $1 million to Renaissance ROM has come from ROM Governor Richard Wernham and his wife Julia West. Manulife Financial has also made a gift of $1 million in support of Renaissance ROM and the Museum's Asian exhibition program. Other recent corporate gifts include additional gifts of in-kind support from Nienkamper Furniture, W Studio, Hauser Industries Inc. and Teknion Corporation, providing furniture and hand-woven floor coverings for the dramatically increased volume of public spaces within the Museum, and Sony Canada Ltd. whose gift of LCD screens and Notebook Computers will technologically enhance the visitor experience entering the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.

"These contributors are outstanding philanthropists, great examples of the kind of people and companies who can help provide the private sector support that is vital to the long term success of the ROM and our other cultural institutions," said Minister of Culture Caroline Di Cocco. "I am very proud of the initiative the Ontario Government took to get Toronto's Cultural Renaissance going, with investments that included $42 million in the ROM alone.

Now we are seeing our dreams come to fruition, with a rebirth of philanthropy and the private sector coming to the plate to ensure that our cultural future remains bright.
For more details on the Schad Family's gift, please see the news release "Renaissance ROM Campaign Receives $12 Million Gift from Robert Schad and Family" at www.rom.on.ca/news/releases/index.php
The Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, the new wing of the Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind that is the centrepiece of the Renaissance ROM project, is now under construction and will have its public Architectural Opening and Building Dedication on June 2, 2007.

Last March, the ROM announced that the total raised by the Renaissance ROM Campaign had surpassed the $200 million milestone.

By www.rom.on.ca