Kennesaw State University near Atlanta, US, has been given a US$2m (£1.3m) pledge towards an art museum that would house its permanent collection of nearly 1,000 pieces.
A report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) says that the pledge was made by retired carpet industry magnate Bernard A. Zuckerman and hinges on Kennesaw raising at least US$1m (£646,000) in the next 10 months.
The museum would be in a new building connected to the school's Dr. Bobbie Bailey & Family Performance Center and house a collection of around 100 pieces by Zuckerman's late wife, a noted Atlanta sculptor. The school also owns and would show pieces by N.C. Wyeth, Marc Chagall, Norman Rockwell, Howard Finster and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
It will effectively be phase two of the performance center, which included the Don Russell Clayton Gallery and additional exhibition space in the Anna F. Henriquez Atrium when it opened in the autumn of 2007. The second phase, occupying about 7,500sq ft (700sq m), would comprise the glass-walled Ruth V. Zuckerman Pavilion - connecting the performance and museum buildings - and two to three additional galleries.
The AJC adds that an architect for the scheme has not yet been selected and the project could expand if the school raises more than US$1m in its campaign.
