NEW YORK, NY.- Adam D. Weinberg, the Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, announced today that the Whitney has received a $1 million endowment grant from the Keith Haring Foundation specifically intended to support exhibitions in the Museum’s downtown building, opening in 2015. Designed by Renzo Piano, the building is currently under construction in the Meatpacking District. The building will enable the Whitney to increase the size and scope of its exhibitions and programming and to showcase, to a far greater extent than previously possible, the Museum’s noted collection.

“This wonderfully generous grant from the Keith Haring Foundation, the first we have received from an artist’s foundation to support exhibitions in our new building, helps to propel us forward as we prepare for our future,” said Mr. Weinberg. “Keith Haring was an extraordinary artist, exuberant, humane, passionate, and unflinching in his honesty. The Whitney has been a staunch supporter of Keith’s work for thirty years and this grant is a testament to our enduring relationship with Keith, his work, and his legacy. The Foundation’s support at this time is essential to strengthening the exhibition program planned for our new building, and we are profoundly grateful to the Foundation, its Board, and its executive director, Julia Gruen.”

The Whitney’s history with Keith Haring began in 1983 when he was presented for the first time in a Whitney Biennial and in The Comic Art Show at the Museum’s downtown branch. He appeared again in the 1991 Whitney Biennial and in a 1992 Independent Study Program exhibition, The Power of the City/The City of Power. In 1997, the Whitney mounted Keith Haring, the artist’s first full retrospective. He was included in The American Century: Art and Culture 1950-2000 in 1999. In 2010, the museum added to its collection of Haring’s work through a magnanimous gift to the Whitney from longtime supporter Emily Fisher Landau; the work was shown in Legacy: The Emily Fisher Landau Collection in 2011.

Julia Gruen, Executive Director of the Keith Haring Foundation, commented: “The Haring Foundation is immensely proud to partner with the Whitney Museum during this important period in the institution’s history. The Whitney has been a longtime believer in Keith’s work and a supporter of his legacy. We are honored to present this grant in support of the exhibition program that the Museum will carry on in its new building downtown.”

In addition to this grant, the Haring Foundation has provided previous support for the Whitney’s Youth Insights program, the Museum’s award-winning teen internship that offers two free, semester-long after-school programs each spring and fall for tenth through twelfth grade New York City high school students.