Donor Spotlight: Martin Z. Margulies Foundation
Our donors take many different forms, ranging from collectors and artists to corporations and foundations, and engagements can consist of anything from a single object to hundreds of works over a multi-year period. One of our most significant recent partnerships has been with the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation, the organization behind the renowned Margulies Collection at the Warehouse in Miami. The impact of this collaboration was recently made public through a full-page announcement by the foundation in Artforum and today we’re excited to share further insight into our work together.
The adventurous collecting of Martin Z. Margulies over the years—often ahead of the curve of an artist’s popularity and uncowed by spatial, material, or archival concerns—has resulted in an incredible trove that has wowed visitors for decades at the foundation’s 50,000 square foot exhibition and education space. Those same artworks are proving to be in high demand by museums that likewise cherish risk-taking and diverse points of view. In just over a year, our partnership with the foundation has yielded nearly 80 gifts completed or currently in progress. Reflecting the reach of the Museum Exchange network, these gifts have been distributed far and wide across the country, spanning 31 institutions across 22 states, including museums of all types and sizes.
Artforum, April 2026
The Margulies team has approached each placement with great care, guided in their decisions by the persuasive proposals submitted by our member museums in which they express the ways that the artworks would meaningful impact their collections, exhibitions, and audiences. For example, at the Akron Art Museum, Joseph Grigely’s installation was seen as an opportunity to enrich the museum’s acquisitions exhibition program through its wit and playful approach to communication. The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University proposed incorporating a trio of sculptures by Meschac Gaba into a 2026 exhibition marking the United States semiquincentennial. At the Wadsworth Atheneum, the opportunity to acquire work by Eva LeWitt carried particular resonance given her father Sol LeWitt’s longstanding relationship with the museum and Eva’s own artistic education through its historic Matrix exhibitions. Meanwhile, in pursuing a work by Sook Jin Jo, the Phoenix Art Museum emphasized the importance of strengthening representation of artists of Asian heritage, given that half of Arizona’s Asian population resides in Maricopa County.
With a number of these works having already been put on view, the immediate impact of these gifts serves as a powerful reminder of how important the patronage of donors such as the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation is in the American museum ecosystem, where resources are scarce and philanthropy continues to play a central role.
We have been honored to work with Martin Z. Margulies and his dedicated team to present these works on our platform and steward them into public collections, and we look forward to continuing the partnership well into the future. It is a stellar example of philanthropic patronage that we hope will be emulated by others across the country.
Joseph Grigely, We're Drunken Bantering About What's Important in Life, 2007, ink and pencil on paper, 46 x 168 in. Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH; Gift of Martin Z. Margulies Foundation.
Meschac Gaba, Pentagon Center, 2017, braided wig of synthetic hair, 36 x 25 x 35 in. Eli & Edythe Broad Art Museum, East Lansing, MI; Gift of Martin Z. Margulies Foundation.
Sook Jin Jo, Variation for One, 1991, wood and paint, 89 1⁄2 x 88 x 4 1⁄2 in. Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ; Gift of Martin Z. Margulies Foundation.
Eva LeWitt, Untitled (11), 2022, silicone and metal beads, 85 x 28 x 28 in. The Wadsworth, Hartford, CT; Gift of Martin Z. Margulies Foundation.
Jackie Nickerson, Green Room, 2005, digital c-print, edition 3 of 6, 47 x 59 in. Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL; Gift of Martin Z. Margulies Foundation.
Jessica Stockholder, Untitled (#348), 2000, couch, photos, metal gate, two lamps, bathtub, fish tank, fan, stool, embroidery thread, fake fur, extension cord, metal stand, acrylic paint, and metal bracket, 82 1⁄2 x 84 x 128 in. (overall). Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE; Gift of Martin Z. Margulies Foundation.
