Toby Devan Lewis, the philanthropist and philanthropist who donated millions of dollars to the New York Museum, died on April 29 at the age of 87. The cause of death was not revealed.
In addition to the new museum, Lewis has funded initiatives at Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art, the Aspen Museum of Art, the Prospect New Orleans Biennale, the Cleveland Institute of Art, the International Studio and Curatorial Program in New York, the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, and the Anderson Ranch Center for the Arts in Colorado.
But the new museum, where Lewis gave him the position of director, gave her the greatest support. For 27 years, Lewis served as a board member there. At the time of her death, she was Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors.
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“She has been admired by everyone and will forever be a part of our history,” Lisa Phillips, director of the new museum, said in an email. “Her support and philanthropy, which put message first and ego last, changed the institution.”
Three years ago, Lewis pledged $20 million to the new museum, making it the largest contribution the foundation has ever received. This gift came on the heels of a similar gift of an unknown amount made in 2016. Both gifts will go to a second building that will add 60,000 square feet to the museum. When it opens, the new building is expected to bear the Louis name.
Other initiatives supported by Lewis include the New Museum Triennale, a survey of world-renowned contemporary art, and NEW INC, an incubator that hosts art and technology projects. There is also a display fund dedicated to emerging artists in the museum in Louis’ honor.
Born in 1934 in Brooklyn as Toby Devan, Lewis served as founder of Progressive Group, the third largest insurance company in the United States, with her ex-husband Peter B. Lewis as president at the time. She started working at Progressive in 1985, four years after their divorce, and stayed there until 2005.
“My main goal was to put together one of the best corporate contemporary art collections in the country,” she once said. “My goal was to challenge our natural tendencies to be inflexible in the face of the growing need to be open to new ideas and alternative viewpoints.”
This collection hosts important pieces by Kerry James Marshall, David Wojnarowicz, Beatriz Milhazes and Kehinde Wiley, and has commissioned artists such as Petah Coyne and Larry Bell to undertake projects for Progressive Lands. According to the Progressive website, the group continues to get about 200 works a year.
The year after she left Progressive, in 2006, Lewis launched the Toby Fund, the charitable arm she used to distribute funding to foundations across the country.
In 2017, Lewis MOCA Cleveland, the Ohio Museum where she was a board member, awarded funding to launch a new award called the Toby Prize. Initially, the prize for the Biennale came in the amount of $50,000 for one artist to have a show at the museum. So far, the award has been won by two artists – Sondra Perry and Jed Koriki Olivo.
“Toby was larger than life: magnetic, sharp, brilliant, warm, curious, and confident,” Megan Likens-Reich, director of MOCA Cleveland, wrote in a statement.
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