The Museum of Anthropology (MOA) has received a $2.5 million grant in support of its major capital renewal project, A Partnership of Peoples, from the Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts.

The university is recognizing the grant—which takes the museum one step closer to its $55.5 million funding target—by renaming the temporary exhibit gallery “The Audain Gallery.” In January 2010, the gallery will open with its first exhibit, “Border Zones: New Art Across Culture.”

“We are going through very big and exciting changes here at MOA, and I am extremely pleased by the Audain Foundation’s support,” said MOA Director Anthony Shelton. “I am most grateful for their confidence in us as one of British Columbia’s premier institutions in the visual arts.”

The Audain Foundation has supported BC visual arts and culture initiatives since 1997. Michael Audain, a UBC alumnus, has given other donations to UBC, including $2 million in support of endowments for the department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory’s Masters in Critical and Curatorial Studies program.
—Samantha Jung