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Weston Family Donates $20 Million Gift to Renaissance ROM

90th anniversary gift brings total private-sector campaign donations to $90 million.

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) received a special gift for its 90th birthday today as The Hon. Hilary M. Weston, Chair of the Renaissance ROM Campaign, announced a donation of $20 million, consisting of $10 million from Hilary and Galen Weston and $10 million from The W. Garfield Weston Foundation, in support of the $200 million project.

Mrs. Weston made the announcement at the ROM's 90th birthday celebration. This brings the Campaign's current total to $150 million, comprising $90 million in private sector donations and $60 million in combined federal and provincial support. (Please see separate news release, - Renaissance ROM Campaign Reaches $150 Million Milestone.)

In recognition of the important philanthropic investment by the Weston family, the ROM will name its 1933 heritage wing on Queen's Park for Hilary and Galen Weston and the Weston family in perpetuity. In addition, the ROM's existing Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall will be relocated to a new 20,000 square-foot international exhibition space in the Michael A. Lee-Chin Crystal.

"We are extremely grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Weston and The W. Garfield Weston Foundation for this generous gift, which will allow the ROM to significantly extend its educational and multicultural mission," said William Thorsell, Director and CEO of the ROM. "The Westons have long been one of Canada's leading philanthropic and business families and great supporters of the ROM. Together with the relocation of the Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall to the Michael A. Lee-Chin Crystal, the Weston wing on Queen's Park will help preserve and restore one of Canada's finest heritage landmarks, while supporting the ROM's vision for the future."

The ROM's Queen's Park building, designed by Toronto architects Chapman and Oxley, was built during the Great Depression using only Ontario workers and materials (with the exception of the glass mosaics lining the Rotunda domed ceiling). The Ontario limestone structure was richly decorated with relief sculptures in the Art Deco style, expressing the ROM's double mandate of nature and civilization. Upon its opening in 1933, it was praised as an architectural masterpiece and remains one of Toronto's most celebrated historic façades, designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.

The Weston family has a long-established association with the Queen's Park heritage wing, which currently houses the Garfield Weston Exhibition Hall on the main floor and the Reta Lila Weston Room on the third floor.

The future Weston family wing on Queen's Park will house the majority of the ROM's Canadian collections and significant portions of its educational facilities. The wing will feature the Canadian heritage collection of decorative arts and historical art on the first floor, the world's finest collection of Canadian minerals and gems in a redeveloped Inco Ltd. Gallery of Earth's Treasures on the second floor, and the current Samuel European Galleries of decorative arts, an important link to Canada's European heritage, on the third floor.

Additionally, the heritage wing will present new galleries devoted to three landmark ROM collections not currently on display - the Sigmund Samuel Collection of Canadian Prints and Drawings, and the 55,000-piece collection of Canadian First Peoples (both on the main floor), as well as the renowned collection of Burgess Shale fossils, excavated by ROM palaeontologists in British Columbia over the last century, on the second floor. This wing will also feature a newly restored Rotunda and ROM Theatre, the renovated School Entrance and studios of the ROM's Learning Centre, and links on the second and third floors into the new Michael A. Lee-Chin Crystal.

Also today at the ROM, Mrs. Weston announced that Loblaws, under the leadership of its President John Lederer, has challenged its friends and suppliers to raise five million dollars for Renaissance ROM. Under the campaign "Help Feed The Minds of Canada's Children", Loblaws itself has spearheaded the $5 million initiative with a $1 million gift.

The Renaissance ROM construction project continues to proceed on time and on budget. A large tower crane will be erected by the end of March to allow the structural steel and concrete to be installed. Phase One, scheduled to open in December 2005, will include: the new Michael A. Lee-Chin Crystal building, housing six new permanent galleries, a large hall for international traveling exhibitions, and a spacious new main entrance; new galleries on the main floor of the historic buildings for the ROM"s signature collections of Asia and Canada; and attractive new retail and restaurant facilities. The remaining heritage renovations will be complete by December 2006.

Mrs. Weston leads an active Campaign Cabinet of 80 diverse volunteers. Last May at the project's Groundbreaking ceremony, she announced that the Campaign had raised $114 million, including: $30 million each from the Governments of Canada and Ontario; a Lead Gift of $30 million from businessman Michael Lee-Chin; three $5 million gifts from the Chairs of the ROM's three Boards: Jack Cockwell and Brascan Corporation, Jim Temerty, and Liza Samuel; and a number of individual donations.

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Issue date:
March 18, 2004

For more information:
Media Relations
Tel.: 416.586.5547
Fax: 416.586.8022
E-mail: media@rom.on.ca

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