Amon Carter Museum Snags $20 Million Gift From Walton Family Foundation

It's the largest gift in the museum's history.

The Amon Carter Museum. Courtesy the museum.

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art, in Fort Worth, Texas, has secured a $20 million endowment from the Walton Family Foundation. Coming over five years, the gift will support exhibitions and education programs.

Alice Walton, chairman of the board at the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art in Arkansas, and a member of the Walton Family Foundation’s board, is intimately familiar with the Texas museum’s programming, having served on the served on its board of trustees from 2004 to 2015. The gift, which is the largest in the museum’s history, is in honor of longtime board president Ruth Carter Stevenson.

“This amazing endowment allows us to expand our offerings beyond what our current operating budget provides, and to engage the community on a deeper level,” said the museum’s executive director, Andrew J. Walker, in a press release announcing the gift. “The Amon Carter is truly grateful for this tremendous demonstration of support.”

The museum was founded by Fort Worth Star-Telegram publisher Amon G. Carter to house his holdings of works by American artists Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell and to develop a collection of American art. Architect Philip Johnson designed the building, which opened in 1961.

Other highlights from the museum’s collection include paintings by Stuart Davis, Charles Demuth, Thomas Eakins, Winslow Homer, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Its holdings of sculpture include works by Alexander Calder, Daniel Chester French, Elie Nadelman, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

Among Carter’s other philanthropic causes were Texas Christian University, where a football stadium is named for him, and Big Bend National Park, where a mountain bears his name.