The University serves Virginia, the nation, and the world by preparing responsible citizen-leaders; advancing, preserving, and disseminating knowledge; and providing world-class patient care.
All gifts of any kind help secure the University’s place as a premier institution of learning and make it possible for our students, faculty, and researchers to shape a brighter future.
You can give to all 12 schools across Grounds. The possibilities are endless for supporting our students, faculty, and programs. Together, we will find the way forward.
You can join the growing number of alumni and friends who invest now in the University’s future by including UVA as a beneficiary of their wills, charitable trusts, and retirement plans. Gifts like these can offer you and your family significant tax benefits as well as greater financial flexibility in meeting your personal and philanthropic goals.
The Honor the Future campaign, the largest in University history, concluded in 2025, thanks to thousands of loyal supporters. Its impact on students, faculty, facilities, and research reaches across Charlottesville, Wise County, and Northern Virginia as it continues to advance the school in its third century of service to the commonwealth, nation, and world.
UVA Arts empowers a community committed to creativity, discovery, curiosity, and service, providing a highly engaging and unique experience for students, faculty, and community members.
+
The University received an extraordinary gift of $50 million from Tessa Ader towards a core component of the Creativity nexus of the Emmet Ivy Corridor: a new Performing Arts Center. The Tessa and Richard Ader Performing Arts Center is envisioned to house a 1,200-seat main hall, a second hall, a dedicated dance space, and other spaces that will enable the University to present concerts, dance, theater, and interdisciplinary arts in a facility unparalleled in Central Virginia.
With the performing arts center as the foundation, the University is assessing opportunities to build a broader and more deeply integrated vision for the arts and creativity at the Emmet Ivy Corridor in the form of a Center for the Arts. Adjacent to the planned Tessa and Richard Ader Performing Arts Center will be the relocated Music Department (currently housed in Old Cabell Hall) and the University’s two museums, the Fralin and the Kluge-Ruhe.
The Fralin Museum of Art also received significant support during the campaign. A gift from the family of alumnus J. Sanford Miller, a venture capitalist and now a general partner at Institutional Venture Partners in Silicon Valley, endowed the J. Sanford Miller Family Director, and the generosity of Dr. Carol R. Angle, with matching and additional funds from the University’s Bicentennial Professors Fund, created the Carol R. Angle Academic Curator.
Recently, collectors John Fox Sullivan and his late wife Beverly Sullivan gave a landmark gift of over more than 100 works by renowned 20th-century and contemporary artists to the Fralin Museum of Art’s permanent collection.
Passion for Production
“It’s been a really amazing outlet to be able to continue my own passion with music in a collaborative way. This is something I believe I’m really good at and can pursue full time as a career.”
Maxwell Mitchell (Col ’26) J. Sanford Miller Family Arts Scholar
Maxwell Mitchell is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer from Milton, Massachusetts. He is currently double majoring in music and economics with a minor in entrepreneurship. Mitchell has written songs since he started playing guitar at age eight. He had performed covers and originals with his hometown band, Victorian Breakfast, but when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented this, Mitchell turned to music production as a new creative outlet. He soon fell in love with the process, and since then, has produced and distributed over four albums’ worth of original music on all streaming platforms. He was able to pursue his interest in production and was invited by his professor, percussionist JoVia Armstrong, to travel to Detroit and spend time with her band, Eunoia Society, while they recorded an album during winter break in 2024. Mitchell currently sings and plays guitar for the band Krispies, which performs regularly in Charlottesville.
See also our story: https://giving.virginia.edu/stories/a-little-help-goes-a-long-way
Windows to New Worlds
“We want to offer our visitors windows to other places and times, and opportunities to see the world we think we know anew.”
Karen E. Milbourne J. Sanford Miller Family Director at The Fralin Museum of Art
Karen E. Milbourne is the new J. Sanford Miller Family Director at The Fralin Museum of Art. Previously, she was the senior curator at the National Museum of African Art, a Smithsonian Institution located in Washington, D.C., since 2008. Before taking the directorship at The Fralin, she also served on the museum’s senior management team. Previously, she was Associate Curator of African Art and Department Head for the Arts of Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific Islands at The Baltimore Museum of Art, and prior to that, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
Milbourne received her Ph.D. in Art History from The University of Iowa in 2003 and has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship, ACASA Award for Curatorial Excellence, AAMC Award for Curatorial Excellence, Smithsonian Secretary’s Award for Excellence and two Smithsonian Secretary’s Research Prizes. Her publications appear in edited volumes and such journals as African Arts, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art, Art Papers, ARS, and Collections. She currently serves on the Scientific Committee for AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research, and Exhibitions), the advisory board for the Lusaka Contemporary Art Center, and is the former Chair of the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowships.
Making Art Accessible
“People connect on a deeper level with artworks when they’re seeing them in person. Not everyone gets the opportunity to go to the big museums in Washington and New York; art education starts locally.”
M. Jordan Love Carol R. Angle Academic Curator at The Fralin Museum of Art +
M. Jordan Love is the Carol R. Angle Academic Curator at The Fralin Museum of Art at the University of Virginia, where she has overseen the education department since 2012. Love’s career as an art historian, educator and museum curator spans more than 25 years. Her experience working in museums in curation, education, collections, and marketing have expanded her role and furthered her mission of making art accessible to diverse audiences.
Under Love’s leadership, the education department has grown to host university classes with over 2,000 enrolled students per year in addition to 4,000 K-12 students in Charlottesville and nine surrounding counties. The Fralin is also known for having one of the oldest and largest student docent programs in the country, having been a cornerstone of the museum for over 35 years.
Love earned a doctorate in art history from Columbia University, completing her dissertation research on medieval art and architecture. She also pursued study in Oceanic art, inspired by having lived on Easter Island for a year as a child. She previously held curatorial positions at the Worcester Art Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts, The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Museum in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and the Sweetwater County Historical Museum in her native Wyoming, where she worked with objects once owned by Butch Cassidy.
As co-trustee of the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, Joe Erdman (Col '56) has been a steadfast advocate...
Ruth Cunningham Cross was one of The Fralin Museum of Art’s most loyal and visionary supporters. A new endowment...
