Academy Museum Rendering - H 2015
Renzo Piano Building Workshop/Studio Pali Fekete Architects/A.M.P.A.S.Katharine DeShaw has been named managing director, advancement and external relations for the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and will lead its fundraising campaign, it was announced Thursday.
Beginning Nov. 1, she will direct all aspects of fundraising, including completing the $388 million capital campaign to support the new museum, which is currently under construction and is scheduled to open in 2018. DeShaw succeeds Bill Kramer, who stepped down as chief fundraiser in October 2015 after launching the fundraising effort.
DeShaw has led fundraising campaigns for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the New York City Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society and Gay Men’s Health Crisis in New York City. She most recently led the consulting firm Philanthropology, which focuses on best practices in philanthropy for clients in a variety of areas, including the arts, culture, the environment, health and social justice. DeShaw also serves on the faculty of the Getty Leadership Institute, an executive management program for international museum directors, and designed its fundraising curriculum.
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In 2005, DeShaw was recruited by the presidents of the Ford and Rockefeller foundations to serve as the founding executive director of United States Artists (USA). In eight years, she built a national board of directors and secured a donor base of arts patrons that included Michael Bloomberg, Eli and Edye Broad, Agnes Gund, Elaine Wynn and Target and secured $56 million in funding — including a $10 million endowment — for the USA Fellows program, providing grants to artists across all disciplines. DeShaw also incubated USA Projects, the world’s first crowdfunding website for artists.
“As we forge ahead toward our opening, Katharine brings not just expertise but also superb leadership, born of nearly three decades of success in philanthropy and the arts,” Academy Museum director Kerry Brougher said in announcing the appointment. “She has the skills, the vision and, above all, the talent to help us create the great movie museum that the film capital of the world expects and deserves.”
