The Philadelphia Museum of Art announced Friday that it has received one of the largest gifts in its history: $20 million from Comcast cofounder Julian A. Brodsky and his wife, Lois G. Brodsky. The gift will support the creation of a new education center named for the donors, vastly expanding on the museum’s existing education spaces.
The current education space clocks in at under 6,000 square feet; the new Brodsky Center will more than triple that area. The museum currently has just 16 education staffers, including both full- and part-time workers, and it plans to expand that cohort, which now serves about 36,000 students a year.
“We don’t have much in the way of dedicated space for education, so it’s been slightly improvisational,” director and CEO Daniel Weiss told ARTnews in a phone conversation. “Nonetheless, we have an active commitment to doing it. This gift will facilitate a higher level of commitment to the work and expand the number of people we can serve, and allow us to innovate new programs we don’t have now because we don’t have space. It’s an obvious thing for a comprehensive museum like ours to have, but we don’t have one.”
Weiss joined the museum last December after the board of trustees dismissed his predecessor; in an ARTnews profile published this month, Hilarie M. Sheets wrote that he is “widely viewed as a smart and thoughtful straight shooter, skilled at solving organizational problems.” The museum had run a $10 million deficit for the 2025–26 fiscal year, on a $76.5 million budget.
The Brodsky gift will transform the museum’s north wing and is the first major capital undertaking since the Core Project, Frank Gehry’s four-year renovation and expansion, which opened to the public in 2021. Initial plans include a family learning center, art studios, a visitor orientation area, and a multipurpose community hub. The museum will work with Philadelphia architecture firm MGA Partners on the design, which is anticipated to be completed by summer 2027, with construction slated to be finished within a few years.
“Lois and I are incredibly happy to support the new Learning and Engagement Center,” said Julian Brodsky in press materials. “It comes at a wonderful moment, bringing together so many of the initiatives we are passionate about and reflecting our deep love for the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Throughout our lives, we have been ardently involved in educational initiatives, with a particular focus on children and families from underserved communities.”
The Brodskys are longtime supporters of the museum. He joined the board in 1995 and became an emeritus trustee in 2024, remaining vice chair of the library and archives committee. She began volunteering there in 1982 and serves on the committees for conservation, European art, and prints, drawings, and photographs. A gallery was named for them in 2005 in recognition of their support of the institution’s 125th anniversary campaign, and they endowed a photography curator position in 2009. Brodsky’s net worth has not been publicly disclosed; Comcast’s current market capitalization is over $81 billion.
“The new Brodsky Center will be an intentionally designed, purpose-built space that inspires limitless educational experiences grounded in the PMA’s collection,” said Audrey Hudson, the museum’s deputy director for learning and engagement, in press materials. “It will address the museum’s need for expanded capacity to host school groups, while providing dedicate spaces for programming and studios for hands-on learning.”