March 11, 2009
Duluth News Tribune

Duluth teacher leaves $3.2 million to Tweed
By Jana Hollingsworth

A devoted fan of the Tweed Museum of Art has left it a $3.2 million endowment meant for three-dimensional art.

Marguerite L. Gilmore, who established a charitable foundation bearing her name, died in 2007 at the age of 101. A member and avid visitor of the University of Minnesota Duluth museum, three-dimensional art was her passion and was her choice for the use of the money, said Jack Bowman, dean of the UMD School of Fine Arts.

“This should enable us to have reputable works from very significant artists,” he said. “And it’s an incredible opportunity to remember her in perpetuity.”

The gift allows UMD to use the earnings — normally about 5 percent — from one-third of the foundation, currently worth about $3.2 million. That amounts to about $150,000 to $200,000 a year, said Ken Bloom, director of the museum.

“The Tweed being pretty much the museum of record for this whole region, we want to make sure our representation of the arts is all media,” he said, noting that the museum is fairly weak in sculpture, and money would go to secure more of that type of art, along with more ceramic pieces.

The gift is the second-largest the Tweed has received. Gilmore was a Duluth resident and teacher who graduated from Duluth Denfeld and taught English at Lincoln Junior High School. She was also a lover of photography, so photographs will be part of the purchases by the Tweed.

One artist Bloom is interested in procuring work from is sculptor Paul Manship, who studied art in Minnesota. Manship, who died in 1966, is known for “Prometheus” at Rockefeller Center in New York. His smaller pieces range from $5,000 to $10,000, Bloom said, and his larger works can cost several thousand dollars more.

The money — administered by Wells Fargo — will allow the museum to search, conserve, repair and store work.