LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced today it has received a gift of $55 million from Los Angeles-based philanthropists Lynda and Stewart Resnick, including $45 million toward LACMA’s ongoing Transformation, a campaign to unify the museum’s campus and refurbish and expand its gallery spaces. Additionally, the Resnicks have promised LACMA gifts of art valued at $10 million. In honor of their generosity, LACMA will name a new Renzo Piano-designed building, slated to open in 2010, the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion.

The Resnick Pavilion will be a single-story, glass and stone-enclosed structure sited north of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM), which opened in February 2008 and was the keystone of Phase I of the Transformation. The new building, a pivotal feature of Phase II, is intended to house special exhibitions, freeing up existing gallery space for LACMA’s robust permanent collection. Architecturally, the Resnick Pavilion will complement BCAM—both buildings feature glass roof and ceiling elements that will flood the galleries with natural light. The Resnick Pavilion’s exterior will be a combination of glass and travertine marble, and its interior galleries will be a flexible open plan that can accommodate multiple exhibitions at once as well as large-scale works of art. Construction on the new building commenced in 2008 and is slated for completion in mid 2010.

“Stewart and I are delighted to participate in the transformation of one of our city’s most beloved institutions,” said Lynda Resnick, who serves on LACMA’s Board of Trustees and is the chair of the Acquisitions Committee. “As art collectors and LACMA supporters, we could think of no better way to buttress this rapidly evolving museum than to create additional space for the exhibition of art.”

Michael Govan, LACMA CEO and Wallis Annenberg Director, noted, “There is a great deal of excitement surrounding the next phase of the Transformation; the Resnick Pavilion will provide LACMA with ideal new galleries and also growth that’s needed to put more of our collections on view.”

In addition to the Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion, Phase II of the Transformation includes the renovation and refurbishment of LACMA West (the former May Company Building, located on the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Fairfax Ave.), which will house study centers for Costume and Textiles, Photography, and Prints and Drawings, as well as flexible gallery space, expanded education facilities, a new restaurant, gift shop, and bookstore. LACMA West will also anchor space for the Boone Children’s Gallery and expanded educational programming, and will serve as the nerve center for the museum’s administrative and curatorial staff.

Mrs. Resnick has served as a member of LACMA’s Board of Trustees since 1992. She is chair of the museum’s Acquisitions Committee. Mrs. Resnick also serves on the Executive Board of the Aspen Institute, for which she chairs the Communications Committee; the Executive Board for the UCLA Medical Sciences; CaP CURE; and the Milken Family Foundation. She is also a trustee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Mr. Resnick currently serves as a member of the Executive Board of the UCLA Medical Sciences; the Board of Trustees of Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY; the Board of Trustees of the J. Paul Getty Trust; and the Board of Conservation International. He is also a trustee of the California Institute of Technology and a member of the Advisory Board of the Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles.