3 Families Donate Collections to the Dallas Museum of Art

Marguerite and Robert Hoffman, who were part of the force behind the gifts of postwar and contemporary art, gave their collection, which resulted in the November 19, 2006-April 8, 2007 exhibit “Fast Forward.”

When Robert Hoffman and I married, we each had a passion for art, but for various reasons, neither of us was associated with the Dallas Museum of Art in any real way. This was a great sadness for me, so I began a quiet campaign to turn Robert’s attention back toward the museum and toward the role we could play in making the institution better.

I had great help in this effort from Howard Rachofsky and Deedie Rose and also from the arrival of Jack Lane as our director. Robert and I were both impressed with Jack’s track record in helping institutions reach their potential and thought his experience provided a wonderful opportunity for the DMA.

During all this time, we were very actively collecting, and it soon became clear that we needed to be mindful of what would happen to our collection in the event of our deaths. It sounds ghoulish, but we were traveling a lot and we had young children, so we were constantly updating our wills, and it forced us to confront the issue.

We felt strongly that our collection was a reflection of the ideas and experiences that we had shared together. It represented a part of us as a couple, so we wanted it to stay together and not be parceled out. The works seemed to belong together and have a certain power or resonance that would be disturbed if they were separated. We also felt strongly about trying to make a difference for our community. Living with these works has been extraordinary for us, and we wanted others to have access to the same experience. So there are the first two elements: a desire to become closer to our city’s major art institution and our decision to give the collection away intact at our death.

The third part of the equation was the work that was being done by the museum staff and key trustees around the thorny issue of how to provide adequate financial support for the museum’s future. As plans for a major campaign evolved, Robert and I got more engaged and began a series of conversations about how we could use what we had been so lucky to acquire to leverage other gifts in the community.

Because providence has declared that Dallas has the nicest and most generous collectors in the universe, it was easy to excite the Rachofskys and Roses and others to join this idea of not only “raising dollars” but also “raising art” for our museum. It has taken a lot of work, and we are not finished, but I believe we have collectively done something unique and very wonderful for our city. I am extremely proud of our actions and the impulses that propelled them into reality.

Robert died of leukemia in the summer of 2006 and was never able to see the exhibition, “Fast Forward,” that was spawned by our bequest. But more than 150,000 people came to see the exhibition at the museum, which is an incredible number for a contemporary exhibition in Dallas. Though I wish more than anything that Robert had been part of that number, I am so very glad that we made this gift during our lifetime together when he was healthy and intellectually and emotionally robust.

I hope our action encourages others to think about their own legacies and what they can do to make a difference now as well as through a future bequest. We must all remember to drink the good wine now and not wait for a better reason tomorrow.