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The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is celebrating an $8 million gift that will pay the salary of the museum's director and president in perpetuity.

The donation from the Duncan and Nivin MacMillan Foundation is the largest staff endowment in the MIA's history. Nivin MacMillan says the gift marks the MIA's centenary, and celebrates the work of current President Kaywin Feldman. She has led the museum since 2008 and will be the first person to hold the newly endowed position.

"The period of Kaywin Feldman's tenure has certainly demonstrated to us how crucial the kind of leadership she has brought to the MIA is to our success," MacMillan said. "The endowment will ensure that the position will attract comparable leadership in the future, and in the next century."

MacMillan joined the MIA's Board of Trustees in 1997, and recently led the effort to raise more than $6 million dollars to celebrate the MIA's 100th anniversary throughout 2015. MacMillan's husband was a longtime Cargill director who died in 2006. 

Feldman says an endowed position is more prestigious and signals donors' commitment to the museum. Feldman's $475,000 salary won't change.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Arts and Culture

Euan Kerr

Author

The donation from the Duncan and Nivin MacMillan Foundation is the largest staff endowment in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts' history.

MIA receives $8M gift to fund director's job

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