$3 Million Gift to Portland Museum of Art
In Memory of Emily Eaton Moore
By: PMA - Sep 22, 2010
At today’s Board of Trustees meeting, the Portland Museum of Art determined that the proceeds from the major gift of $3 million given to the Museum from the family of Emily Eaton Moore will be allocated as follows:
$1 million to create the Emily Eaton Moore and Family Fund for the Collection for the acquisition and maintenance of art; $1 million to create an investment fund to support the Museum’s general operations; and $1 million to the Winslow Homer Studio campaign to ensure the ongoing educational, curatorial, and maintenance of the Studio. In addition, the fourth floor gallery in the Charles Shipman Payson Building will be named the Emily Eaton Moore and Family Gallery. Given to the Museum in June, this is one of the largest gifts made to the Museum in the last 10 years.
“This allocation of funds from Emily Moore’s gift is our way of honoring Emily’s legacy,” said Museum Board President John Isacke. “The Museum is indebted to Emily’s family, and this extremely generous gift will benefit the Museum and the communities that it serves for generations to come.”
Emily Eaton Moore, a trustee and longtime supporter of the Museum, passed away in March 2010. A Portland resident, Emily was passionate about the Museum and its collection. She served on many committees over the years, most recently as a trustee and a valued member of the Museum’s Collection Committee. Not only was she a generous supporter of the Museum, she shared her skills and talents in a number of areas, particularly fundraising. Emily served as assistant director and acting director of the Museum in the early 1980s. She was also a principal liaison with the architecture firm I. M. Pei & Partners during the design and construction of the Museum’s award-winning Charles Shipman Payson Building.
During her career, Emily worked for Maine Savings Bank, the City of Portland, and as director of admissions at Waynflete School. Mrs. Moore graduated from the University of Southern Maine with degrees in English literature and Art History and earned a masters degree in fiction writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She was an accomplished short-story writer, a poet, an avid sailor who traveled the world, and supporter of the arts in Maine. Mrs. Emily Eaton Moore is survived by her husband, Charles “Kip” Moore, her daughter, Abby Woodman, and grandson, Shawn Hendrickson.