DALLAS, TX.- The Dallas Museum of Art today announced an anonymous gift of $9 million over three years to ensure free general admission to the DMA and enable the Museum to publish its entire collection online.

The donation, effective immediately, will provide $4 million in unrestricted general operating support for free general admission. It is structured to include matching funds from additional giving of $2 million raised over a five-year period. The remaining $5 million will complete the digitization of the Museum’s permanent collection, including the creation of rich educational content to support free online experiences with art. The gift includes resources to measure the educational impact of the project.

The DMA is the largest museum in the region, providing access to its collection and a wide range of exhibitions and educational and public programs to the community. In January 2013, the DMA returned to a policy of free general admission, reflecting its renewed emphasis on increased accessibility. In tandem with this shift to free general admission, the DMA launched an innovative new platform of visitor participation called DMA Friends, which offers free membership to anyone who wishes to be a part of the Museum. Since the launch of DMA Friends, more than 35,000 visitors have enrolled in the program, 94 percent of whom self-report no prior involvement with the Museum.

By digitizing its entire collection, the DMA will create one of the most sophisticated online art collections in the world, by providing greater accessibility to its collection and leading the field in the quality of information available for use by students, teachers, and scholars. In addition, whenever permitted by existing agreements, the DMA will release all images, data, and software it creates to the public under Open Access licenses for free personal and educational use.

“This is an exciting moment in the Museum’s history, and we are deeply grateful to our donor for the exceeding generosity and the significance of this gift,” said Maxwell L. Anderson, the DMA’s Eugene McDermott Director. “With this donation, the DMA will become one of the world’s most open and accessible museums. This opportunity reinforces our deep commitment to serve as an important educational resource for our local and regional community, as well as for our growing online audiences worldwide.”

“We are extremely grateful for the support this gift provides to the DMA,” added Robert Stein, Deputy Director. “It is a vote of confidence in the Museum’s efforts to make free experiences with art broadly available to the public, both onsite and online. By providing Open Access to so much new content about our collection, this donation is making an important statement about the value of open cultural data for the future of our field. I’m thrilled about the opportunity this provides for the DMA to make a significant impact in the field digitally.”