Phoenix Art Museum gets US$5m to grow Asian art galleries
Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona has received US$5 million from philanthropist Sukumar Nagendran to expand its galleries for Asian art, The Art Newspaper reported.
The gift will enlarge the museum’s Art of Asia galleries from about 6,000 sq ft to 10,000 sq ft. That is almost double. The work will be done by renovating and repurposing existing space rather than building a new wing.
The new room has a name. A 2,000-sq-ft Nagendran Gallery for the Art of Sri Lanka and South Asia will be created as part of the project. It is due to open in November with the exhibition Pala Pothupitiye: Mapping a Sri Lankan Consciousness, put together by curator Tushara Bindu Gude, the person who selects the works and shapes the display.
The money is not only for walls and lighting. It will also pay for acquisitions, the works a museum buys or accepts as donations, plus scholarly research and public programmes with a focus on Sri Lankan art.
The museum holds more than 21,000 pieces in total. More than 4,000 of them are by artists who live or work in Asia, or who are from Asia. Nagendran, the donor behind the expansion, is president and head of research and development at the US biotech company Taysh Gene Therapies.
For visitors, this means more space to walk through and a dedicated address for Sri Lanka and South Asia within the larger Asian art area. The museum’s website lists its Art of Asia display in the Nagendran Wing for the Art of Asia, scheduled from 6 November 2026 to 27 August 2028, according to Phoenix Art Museum.
