The Peggy Guggenheim Collection launches a fundraiser to continue its founder's mission

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice has launched the Together for the PGC crowdfunding campaign in order to be able to make its art holdings accessible to the public again, every day, and to ensure that all educational activities are free of charge.

A collection born out of the passion for art of one of the most celebrated art dealers and collectors of the 20th century, Peggy Guggenheim (New York, 1898 - Camposampiero, 1979). “I have always been dedicated to my collection. A collection means hard work. I was the one who wanted it and turned it into my life’s work,” Peggy herself had said.

The adventure that led her to start her important collection at Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, where it is still housed today, began in 1949, when Peggy decided to move from New York with her then-complete collection, later enriched by splendid and significant works of art. Palazzo Venier dei Leoni today preserves a true cross-section of twentieth-century art history, with great masterpieces by Umberto Boccioni, Alexander Calder, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Leonor Fini, Alberto Giacometti, Grace Hartigan, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Germaine Richier and many, many other masters.

Since 1980, the palace that directly overlooks the Grand Canal has opened its doors to the public, and now, after thirteen weeks of forced closure, from March 8 to June 1, the collection is facing one of its most difficult periods. The goal, however, remains the preservation and conservation of Peggy Guggenheim’s legacy by educating the public about the value of art as a tool for personal growth and the development of critical thinking, her main mission from the beginning.

However, for this to be maintained, the museum needs steady revenue. Today, after 86 days of closure, the Collection faces a loss of more than 2 million euros, vital to its survival, and that of its countless activities. The museum was gradually reopened on weekends in June, to which Fridays were added in July, in order to make the permanent collection accessible, while complying with security measures and thus with quota admissions, thus greatly reduced. The temporary exhibition Migrating Objects remains closed, the publication of catalogs is suspended, and the exhibition programming planned for the coming months needs to be revised.

The museum’s desire is to return to reopening 6 days a week, to ensure free admission for children up to 10 years of age, as well as free admission for a series of services and activities aimed at visitors, such as Art Talks, Public Programs, Kids Day, and activities aimed at the fourth-age public, the blind, and schools of all levels in the Veneto region.

On its own, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection cannot sustain all this, as it does not have state funding, so it has launched an extraordinary fundraising campaign, aimed at those who share the same values and vision, to ensure that its artistic heritage will remain public and open to all in the future, as Peggy herself wished.

Families, students, teachers, art lovers, millennials, the young, the not-so-young, the differently abled: to this large and devoted community of supporters, which until now has itself been a founding part of the museum’s history, the Collection is appealing for a donation. Their contribution is now crucial.

To donate to the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, you can visit donate.guggenheim-venice.it

The Peggy Guggenheim Collection launches a fundraiser to continue its founder's mission

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