MSU art patrons Alan and Rebecca Ross gift $7.5 million to Broad art museum

EAST LANSING — A Michigan State University alumnus and his wife who already have given millions to the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum have gifted the arts center $7.5 million, school officials said Wednesday.

Alan and Rebecca Ross' gift will add to the existing Alan and Rebecca Ross Exhibition Endowment, which was established by the couple with a previous $1 million cash gift in 2014 to support the museum’s exhibition program.

“The MSU Broad has become a significant part of our lives,” Rebecca Ross said in a press release. “Its mission closely aligns with our belief that art is an extremely important component of everyday living.”

The Alan and Rebecca Ross Education Wing in the Zaha Hadid-designed museum was named in their honor.

“We continue to learn from art,” Alan Ross said in the release. “Beginning with the most primitive cave drawings and continuing to the über-current TikTok performance videos — we see something in all forms of art. This gift will provide the MSU Broad with the annual resources to continue and grow its exhibition program for the students, faculty and community forever.”

Their gift will further the goals of the MSU Broad Art Museum’s exhibition program, which presents research, scholarship and interdisciplinary learning, officials said in a release. The museum's "growing permanent collection" spans from the ancient world to the present day, they said.

“Words can hardly convey the magnitude and impact of this gift from Alan and Rebecca Ross and the ways it will shape an ever-brighter future for the MSU Broad Art Museum,” said Steven Bridges, interim director of the museum. “Through the bolstering of their endowment, the museum’s exhibition program will grow significantly in the years ahead to provide unique, unparalleled engagements with art here on MSU’s campus.”

In addition to their endowment, the Rosses also have supported the museum through numerous in-kind gifts of art. In the past year, they gifted the museum with several important Zaha Hadid works; the MSU Broad Art Museum currently holds the largest collection of Zaha Hadid Design works in North America

The impact of the Rosses’ support for the arts at MSU also extends beyond the MSU Broad Art Museum, officials noted. In 2022, the Rosses created the Alan and Rebecca Ross DIA Enrichment fund at MSU to strengthen collaborations between the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Department of Art, Art History and Design in MSU’s College of Arts and Letters.

“It is deeply meaningful to have the support of Alan and Rebecca Ross, who are leaders in the arts community in Michigan and beyond,” MSU Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff said. “Their partnership is a tremendous asset as we grow and expand the MSU Arts strategy.”

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: $7.5 million gift for MSU's Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum from Alan and Rebecca Ross