Press Release

Fort Lauderdale, FL –November 2, 2020– NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale has received a $1.6 million gift from The Jerry Taylor & Nancy Bryant Foundation to endow an art curator position and provide funds for the Museum’s youth education programs. The impact of this gift to the Museum will be magnified thanks to Nova Southeastern University’s newly established endowment challenge that matches interest on all new endowments up to 5% through 2025. (NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is a division of Nova Southeastern University.) The Museum has initiated a nationwide search to fill the curatorial role.

“We extend our heartfelt thanks to Nancy Bryant and Jerry Taylor for this outstanding gift, especially during these challenging times, and in recognition of their support the position will be named the Bryant-Taylor Curator,” states Francie Bishop Good, chair of the Museum’s Board of Governors.

“We are deeply appreciative of Nancy and Jerry’s major gift to NSU Art Museum. Once again they have led the way in support of the Museum by being the first to contribute to the Museum’s new endowment challenge,” said Dr. George L. Hanbury II, president of Nova Southeastern University.

“Nancy and Jerry have repeatedly demonstrated their strategic support of the Museum, and in 2015, they provided the initial funding to launch our Museum on the Move program, which has provided thousands of Broward County School students with free field trips to tour the Museum’s exhibitions,” states Bonnie Clearwater, the Museum’s director and chief curator. “This new strategic gift once again demonstrates the couple’s foresight and it will help make it possible for the Museum to continue organizing compelling exhibitions, build an exceptional art collection and provide high caliber educational programming.”

Nancy Bryant stated, “Beginning with the Museum on the Move program that we helped fund, the Museum has opened its doors to school children in a meaningful new way; it started a trajectory that perfectly fits our foundation’s mission.  Our new grant supports an additional curator to ensure that the Museum plays a significant role in increasing Broward County students’ academic performance and also allows the Museum to focus on its future exhibitions and offerings for art lovers at all levels.  We encourage more donors to join us and help the Museum open its doors wider.”

NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is located at One East Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL. For additional information, please visit nsuartmuseum.org or call 954-525-5500.  Stay connected with NSU Art Museum on social media @nsuartmuseum.

About The Jerry Taylor & Nancy Bryant Foundation
The Jerry Taylor & Nancy Bryant Foundation, a private, not-for-profit philanthropic organization, was established in 1998 by Jerry Taylor and his wife, Nancy Bryant. The Foundation is family managed and believes firmly in the importance of education and the arts. Nancy, with more than 20 years of experience in association management, has a business degree from Austin College and was executive director of The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors. She served as chair of the Washington Committee on the Arts at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Jerry, a graduate of San Francisco State University with a degree in physics, spent his career in avionics and telecommunications. He is a United States Air Force veteran and former CEO of MCI Communications Corporation. Since its inception, the Foundation has made grants to more than 80 non-profit organizations providing scholarships and supporting programs in the arts and education, as well as giving social services grants for foster kids and elder care. The Foundation’s primary focus is on the profound and widening excellence gap through elementary and secondary school in arts and education, particularly in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

About NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale
Founded in 1958, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is a premier destination for exhibitions and programs encompassing many facets of civilization’s visual history. Located midway between Miami and Palm Beach in downtown Fort Lauderdale’s arts and entertainment district, the Museum’s 83,000 square-foot building, which opened in 1986, was designed by architect Edward Larrabee Barnes and contains over 25,000 square feet of exhibition space, the 256-seat Horvitz auditorium, a museum store and café. In 2008, the Museum became part of Nova Southeastern University (NSU), one of the largest private research universities in the United States. NSU Art Museum is known for its significant collection of Latin American art, contemporary art with an emphasis on art by Black, Latinx and women artists, African art that spans the 19th to the 21st-century, as well as works by American artist William Glackens, and the European Cobra group of artists. Two scholarly research centers complement the collections: The Dr. Stanley and Pearl Goodman Latin American Art Study Center and the William J. Glackens Study Center.

Exhibitions and programs at NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale are made possible in part by a challenge grant from the David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation. Funding is also provided by the City of Fort Lauderdale, AutoNation, Community Foundation of Broward, the Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council and Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture. NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale is accredited by the American Association of Museums.