Museum News

IT’S A GREAT TIME TO BE ABLE TO SHINE A LIGHT ON OTHER INSTITUTIONS AND OTHER ENTITIES THAT ARE REALLY DRIVING A POSTIVE CHANGE IN OUR COMMUNITY, AND THAT’S WHAT I REALLY THINK PHOENIX ART MUSEUM IS DOING.

/// KELVIN BEACHUM, OFFENSIVE TACKLE, ARIZONA CARDINALS ///

PHXART X NFL

Each year, players in the National Football League have an opportunity to represent a design celebrating a nonprofit or social cause about which they are passionate on their game cleats, and this year, for Arizona Cardinals’ offensive tackle, Kelvin Beachum, that cleat design got a little artistic.

On December 13, 2021, during the nationally televised Monday Night Football game against the Los Angeles Rams, Arizona Cardinals offensive tackle Kelvin Beachum sported custom cleats with a design showcasing Phoenix Art Museum, his non-profit cause of choice. The bespoke footwear was created as part of the NFL’s My Cause My Cleats campaign, an annual initiative that allows players to highlight not only their passions beyond football but to help raise funds for organizations whose missions are important to them. At the end of the NFL season, cleats from the My Cause My Cleats initiative are auctioned off, and all proceeds benefit the players’ chosen causes. Beachum’s cleats, auctioned on December 13, raised valuable funds in support of arts education programs and exhibitions at Phoenix Art Museum. As additional support for the Museum, Beachum also dropped four non-fungible tokens (NFTs) during the December 13 game, all of which were auctioned off to the highest bidders, with proceeds benefiting the Museum. Originally from Mexia, Texas, and a graduate of Southern Methodist University (SMU), Beachum is a professional football player by occupation, but off the field, he has dedicated himself to battling hunger and increasing educational opportunities for young people. Through this work, Beachum and his family have partnered with a number of food banks across Texas and in Pittsburgh, Penn., Jacksonville, Fla., and New York to bring awareness to issues of food insecurity and malnutrition. In April 2016, he launched Kelvin Konnects, a STEAM initiative designed to increase access for students of color and young people from other marginalized groups who wish to pursue careers within the science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics sectors. Through this most recent My Cause My Cleats campaign, Beachum, who is a passionate collector of contemporary

PHOENIX ART MUSEUM RECEIVES MAJOR GRANTS FROM VIRGINIA G. PIPER CHARITABLE TRUST AND THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES

In September 2021, Phoenix Art Museum received an unexpected and unprecedented gift: a $4 million grant from Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust as part of the Trust’s “Now is the Moment” Grants Commemoration— the largest single-day grant initiative in Arizona’s history. Presented as a surprise award, the grant is the largest the Museum has received from the Trust over the two organizations’ long partnership and is one of the largest single grants the Museum has received in its history from any philanthropic organization or grantmaking body. “We are deeply grateful for the outstanding generosity of Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust,” said Mark Koenig, the interim Sybil Harrington Director and CEO of Phoenix Art Museum. “Since 2000, Piper Trust has provided significant ongoing support to Phoenix Art Museum, and this latest gift further reinforces Piper Trust’s resolute commitment to the arts in our region.” In addition to supporting past PhxArt exhibitions such as Teresita Fernández: Elemental and Wondrous Worlds: Art & Islam Through Time & Place, in 2017 Piper Trust provided nearly $1 million

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