GAINESVILLE, FL.- The Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida set a goal of adding 20 new gifts of art to each of the museum’s collecting areas—African, Asian, modern and contemporary art, and photography—in its 20th anniversary year. Longtime patrons and new friends honored the museum by surpassing that goal and giving more than 350 works of art since Jan. 2010. The Harn also held a benefit party, “20 Candles: Come As You Art!” on Oct. 8, to support exhibitions and programs, which raised more than $150,000. At the event, current Director Rebecca Nagy announced that Harn founding museum and Emeritus Director Budd Harris Bishop and his wife Julia have made a gift to support the work of the museum at the director’s discretion. In honor of their gift a gallery space has been named The Julia C. and Budd H. Bishop Gallery. The gifts and funds raised in honor of the museum’s 20th anniversary total more than $2.6 million.

“We are so very grateful and touched by the overwhelming response from the Harn’s supporters,” said Rebecca Nagy, Director of the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. “These gifts impact the museum in a significant way, enhancing the permanent collection and allowing our UF faculty and students the opportunity to experience and learn from more great art first hand.”

“The Harn’s 20th anniversary celebration on Oct. 8 exceeded our expectations for a fundraising event and was demonstrative of the Harn’s importance to the local community, the University of Florida, its faculty, students, alumni and friends from around the country,” said Phyllis DeLaney, Harn Senior Director of Development.

Highlights of the generous donors and donations to the Harn include:

• Don Vining, President of the University of Florida Grand Guard Class of 1960, and his wife Beverley, long-time supporters, gifted 60 trade ceramics from Southeast Asia and China. A portion of these gifts are currently on view in the Harn’s exhibition Avenues of Exchange: Trade Ceramics from the Vining Collection.

• Bill Zewadski donated 36 photographs which cover a wide range of subject matter from photographs of classical sculpture by various artists to nudes and celebrity portraits by Len Prince. Many of Zewadski’s gifts will be included in the exhibition Faces and Figures, exploring representations of the portrait and the nude over the last century, opening Nov. 9, 2010.

• Norma Canelas Roth and William D. Roth gave a mid 20th century Bridal cape or isikoti made by the Ngwane people of South Africa. The cape will be on view in the Harn’s exhibition Africa Interweave: Textile Diasporas which opens February 8, 2011.

• Ken and Laura Berns, a docent for the past 10 years, have assisted in the museum’s goal of increasing outdoor sculpture with acquisition support for Jane Manus’s Homage to Al, a contemporary sculpture that honors architect Alfred Browning Parker.

• Melvin and Lorna Rubin, long-time supporters of the Harn made a gift of 75 photographs by Brazilian social documentary photographer Sebastião Salgado.
Dr. August Freundlich gave 58 drawings and 35 works on paper featuring American artists, including Milton Avery, Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Robert Gwathmey, among others. The gift honors his late wife, Tommie Freundlich.

• Steve and Carol Shey, long-time supporters of the Harn gave Roof Ladder a watercolor on paper by artist Jamie Wyeth.