(New York, April 28, 2015)—Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announced today the appointment of Clyde B. Jones III as Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement, a newly created position at the Museum. Mr. Jones is currently President of the University of Pittsburgh/UPMC Medical and Health Sciences Foundation, which was created in 2003 to raise philanthropic funds for the university’s Schools of the Health Sciences and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). He serves concurrently as Chief Development Officer for UPMC and Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences Development at the University of Pittsburgh. He will begin working at the Met in mid-July.
Mr. Campbell, in making the announcement, said: “We are delighted to welcome Clyde to the Met in the new role of Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement. Clyde comes to the Museum with outstanding fundraising experience, coupled with a personal commitment to culture and art that will only strengthen his leadership of our development activities. I look forward to introducing him to our generous community of supporters and to working with him to advance the Met’s future plans.”
"It is an honor to have been chosen to lead the development efforts at the Met,” said Clyde Jones. “There is much to be done in the coming years, and I look forward to working with the extraordinary staff, curators, board members, and donors who are integral to the Museum's success. It will be a particular pleasure to work with the talented people in Development and Membership; they have played such a large part in the Met’s growth over the past 20 years under the leadership of former President Emily Rafferty.”
In his new position at the Met, Mr. Jones will lead the Museum’s efforts to deepen and broaden the Museum’s engagement with current and prospective donors locally, nationally, and internationally. He will work in close partnership with incoming President Daniel H. Weiss, to whom he will report, as well as with Director and CEO Thomas P. Campbell, Vice President for Institutional Advancement Nina McN. Diefenbach, curators, Trustees, and a departmental staff of 90 fundraising professionals who oversee a range of development and membership activities, as well as special events.
The Museum has an annual operating budget of approximately $300 million, more than half of which is received through fundraising activities.
The last six years have been one of the Met’s most dynamic periods. The main building was transformed by new galleries for Islamic and American art, The Costume Institute, and European paintings, while the plaza renovation reinvigorated the Met’s exterior. Beyond its galleries, new digital initiatives have brought the Met’s vast resources to audiences around the world. The Museum has also continued its tradition of groundbreaking exhibitions and publications, and has maintained a vibrant acquisitions program highlighted by the 2013 promised gift of the Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection.
Looking ahead, The Met Breuer will open in March 2016 in the landmark Marcel Breuer building on Madison Avenue and 75th Street; its program will explore modern and contemporary art through the lens of the Met’s historic holdings. In parallel, David Chipperfield Architects is developing a new design for the proposed rebuilding of the Southwest Wing of the Met. The Museum also is working with design firm Beyer Blinder Belle to incorporate state-of-the-art, sustainable methods and infrastructure for the collections. These initiatives—combined with an ongoing commitment to connecting audiences to the Met’s relevance and scholarship—will support the Museum’s vision to create the most dynamic and inspiring art museum in the world.
About Clyde Jones
Considered one of the country’s leading fundraisers for academic medicine, Mr. Jones led the Medical and Health Sciences Foundation, along with the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Institutional Advancement, to the successful completion of the university’s $2 billion “Building Our Future Together” capital campaign. He played a major role in creating partnerships with all of UPMC’s affiliated hospital foundations, in order to coordinate philanthropy across the entire organization. He has also been involved in UPMC’s charitable contributions work and has been a leader in its support for arts and cultural organizations.
Prior to working in Pittsburgh, he was director of development for New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York City’s largest hospital, and its academic partner, Cornell University’s Weill Medical College. While there, he was involved in developing capital campaigns that raised more than $2 billion, including completion of a $600 million campaign to construct a major new hospital building and research laboratories for the medical college. Under his leadership the New York-Weill Cornell Development Office raised more than $200 million annually.
Before his tenure at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Mr. Jones was director of annual campaigns and special events for Lenox Hill Hospital. He also served as the New York Civil Liberties Union’s first professional director of development and membership, responsible for all of the fundraising activities of the largest affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. He took part in a task force that developed fundraising strategies for ACLU affiliates nationwide.
Mr. Jones has been deeply involved in the Pittsburgh community, serving on numerous boards and committees. He is board president of the Pittsburgh Opera and former board president of City Theatre. He is also a member of the August Wilson Center Recovery Committee, and a board member of Magee Women’s Research Institute and Foundation, public television station WQED, Washington and Jefferson College, ACLU of Pennsylvania, and the Fiandaca Foundation.
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About The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the world’s leading art museums, with a collection spanning more than 5,000 years of world culture, from prehistory to the present. It presents dozens of exhibitions each year, and thousands of events and programs including films, talks, performance, guided tours, and family programs. A center for art appreciation, scholarship, research, and conservation, the Met also maintains a vibrant program of publishing scholarly and popular catalogues, and utilizes new technologies to enhance the visitor experience and extend the reach and accessibility of its offerings globally.
In addition to its main building at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, the Met is launching its modern and contemporary art-themed programming at The Met Breuer in spring 2016, and continues to present exhibitions and collection displays related to the art and architecture of the medieval world at The Cloisters museum and gardens, its branch in upper Manhattan.
Last year, The Metropolitan Museum of Art welcomed 6.2 million visitors to its main building and The Cloisters, and had 44 million visits to its website at www.metmuseum.org.
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April 28, 2015
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