BOSTON, MASS.- Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), the nation’s only independent public college of art and design, officially kicked off the public phase of its Unbound: Campaign for the Bakalar & Paine Galleries with a $1 million gift from Pace Gallery founder and MassArt alumnus Arne Glimcher (BA’60, Painting). One of the world’s most powerful art dealers and ranked third in the U.S. by Forbes magazine, Glimcher founded Pace Gallery in 1960 in Boston and now has four locations in New York, one in Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Paris, Hong Kong, Beijing, and London. He is also a songwriter, movie producer and director.

Having already raised $7 million, along with gifts and pledges expected from 100 percent of the Board of Trustees and Foundation Board by the end of the fiscal year, the public phase of the campaign has a goal of raising $5 million more in order to complete the $12 million initiative. The Unbound campaign will fund a transformative revitalization of the 8,000 square foot, three-floor gallery space, the largest free contemporary art space in New England that currently showcases 4-6 exhibitions per year by some of the world’s most influential and emerging artists in contemporary art. Campaign funds will support restoration and preservation within the historic galleries that occupy one of the original campus buildings. Renovations will allow for improved public access with a visible street-side front entrance on Huntington Avenue, updated HVAC systems for expanded year-round programming, new curatorial offices, and an expanded preparatory workshop. designLAB Architects have been selected to spearhead the project.

Revitalization of the Bakalar & Paine Galleries marks the final phase of the College’s $140 million comprehensive campaign launched in April, 2010 for the transformation of the entire MassArt campus, comprising nearly one million square feet in the heart of Boston’s Fenway Cultural District on the Avenue of the Arts. Two new buildings have been constructed, including the opening of a new “Tree House” Residence Hall (2012), and the recently opened Design and Media Center (2016).

“We are incredibly fortunate to announce this campaign with one of the largest gifts in the history of the college by one of MassArt’s most esteemed alumni,” says Dr. David P. Nelson, newly appointed President of MassArt. “We are grateful for Mr. Glimcher’s leadership, and the support of many other donors who believe in MassArt as we continue to advance the mission of the College through engaging and thought provoking contemporary art exhibitions in the Bakalar & Paine Galleries.”

Arne Glimcher ’60: Arne Glimcher earned a BA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design and a MFA from Boston University. Glimcher founded the Pace Gallery in Boston in 1960, and three years later the gallery relocated to New York, setting up its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan. By the early 1980’s, the Pace Gallery was fully established as one of the city’s premier modern and contemporary art venues for painting, sculpture, video, and installation art. A constant vital force in the art world, the Pace Gallery has grown to include major international artists and estates of the 20th and 21st centuries. Today, with his son Marc, Mr. Glimcher presides over four galleries in New York City as well as locations in Beijing, Hong Kong, London, Paris, and Menlo Park and Palo Alto, California. In 2016, the gallery launched Pace Art + Technology, a new program dedicated to showcasing interdisciplinary art groups, collectives, and studios whose works explore the confluence of art and technology. Pace Gallery also funds The Pace Scholarship at MassArt awarding $5,000 each year to a student in the MFA program.

Mr. Glimcher is also a producer and director of motion pictures. His credits include Legal Eagles for Universal Pictures in 1986; The Good Mother for Touchstone in 1988, Gorillas in the Mist for Warner Brothers/Universal Pictures; The Mambo Kings for Warner Brothers in 1992, for which he received an Academy Award nomination as lyricist for Best Music, Original Song; Just Cause for Warner Brothers in 1995; four episodes as host and interviewer of The Artist’s Studio, from 2006 to 2009; and was the director and producer of Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies in 2008. In 2013, he produced the documentary White Gold.