DENVER, CO.-The Denver Art Museum today announced that Denver resident Tom Petrie will donate $5 million dollars to endow the Museum’s Institute of Western American Art . Additionally, he has agreed to a long-term loan of pieces from his comprehensive collection of works by Western artist Charles M. Russell for display at the Museum. In recognition both of this generous gift and Mr. Petrie’s long-time commitment to Western art and the Denver Art Museum , the Museum is proud to announce a new name for the Museum’s Western art initiative: “The Petrie Institute of Western American Art.”

The gift will be used to fund art display and conservation, Institute staffing, special exhibitions, and educational efforts including the annual Western Passages publication and an annual symposium. An impressive lineup of upcoming exhibitions that will be supported by the gift includes George Carlson: Heart of the West (December 15, 2007–April 13, 2008), In Contemporary Rhythm: The Art of Ernest L. Blumenschein (November 15, 2008–February 15, 2009), Charles Deas: Telling Tales to 1840s America (June 6, 2009–August 30, 2009) and The Russell Retrospective (November 2009–January 2010).

“As the Denver Art Museum is at the geographic center of the Rocky Mountain West, our goal is to create one of the most internationally respected centers of Western American art,” said Peter Hassrick , director of the Institute. “In conjunction with other recent gifts and initiatives by ardent supporters including the Dietler, Harmsen and Wallace families, this generous gift from Mr. Petrie provides us with very exciting momentum towards achieving this goal.”

The $5 million dollar pledge for endowing the Petrie Institute includes a $3 million outright cash gift, followed by a $2 million “challenge” grant. Mr. Petrie will match other financial gifts to the endowment on a dollar-for-dollar basis, up to a $2 million limit. Under this arrangement, Mr. Petrie hopes to assist the Museum in raising $7 million of the $10 million dollars needed to fully endow the Museum’s Western American art efforts.

“As an avid collector of Western art and a resident of Denver , my intention is that this gift will help continue to elevate the importance of Western art within the Colorado community and at the Denver Art Museum ,” said Tom Petrie. “With the progress that’s been made in the last decade in terms of strengthening the collection, building an excellent curatorial team and increasing the priority on Western American art, I feel that the Denver Art Museum is well positioned to develop this program into one of the finest in the world.”

The Institute was founded in 2001 following the very successful Painters and the American West exhibition, drawn from the esteemed Anschutz collection, and a major donation of more than 700 objects from the collection assembled by Bill and Dorothy Harmsen. Since then, Peter H. Hassrick, a leading scholar and curator in the field of Western American art and past director of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody , Wyoming , was hired as director of the Institute. Former director and curator Joan Carpenter Troccoli has been appointed senior scholar and has focused on writing and curatorial duties associated with exhibitions and publications. Hassrick, Troccoli and associate curator Ann Daley also worked to prominently display many of the major works from the collection in the Dietler Galleries of Western American Art in the new Frederic C. Hamilton Building , which opened in October of 2006.

A member of the Denver Art Museum Board of Directors since 1998 as well as the Museum’s Western Advisory Committee, Tom Petrie is a Vice Chairman of Merrill Lynch and has a long career in energy investment banking. Mr. Petrie is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, holds an MSBA from Boston University and received an Honorary Doctorate of Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

Plans for exhibiting works from Mr. Petrie’s Russell collection will be announced in the near future.

Already known and respected for the high quality and diversity of its collections and programs, the Denver Art Museum is one of the first general art museums to include the art of the American West within a broader art-historical context. The strengths in the collection of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art lie in western art masterworks from the 19th and early 20th centuries, featuring a range of Colorado artists as well as regional and national masterpieces. In 2001, the Museum's collection of western American art was significantly augmented by the Harmsen Foundation's gift of more than 700 objects. The Harmsen Collection joined an existing collection that was already rich in 19th-century photographs of the West. In addition, the Museum's collection of paintings and sculpture of western subjects includes such masterworks as Charles Marion Russell's In the Enemy's Country (purchased with funds from a Magness Family donation), Frederic Remington's The Cheyenne (purchased with funds from a Hewitt Family donation), and Charles Deas' iconic painting, Long Jakes.

The Denver Art Museum is located on 13th Avenue between Broadway and Bannock Streets in downtown Denver . Open Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday 10 a.m.-10 p.m., Sunday noon-5 p.m.; closed Mondays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Admission for Colorado residents: $10 adults, $8 seniors and students. Admission for non-Colorado residents: $13 for adults, $10 for seniors and students, $5 for visitors aged six to eighteen, free for children under 6. General Museum admission is free for Colorado residents the first Saturday of each month, thanks to citizens who support the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD). The Cultural Complex Garage is open; enter from 12th Avenue between Broadway and Bannock or check the DAM website for up-to-date parking information. For information in Spanish, call 720-913-0169. For more information, call 720-865-5000 or visit www.denverartmuseum.org.