Wexner Center announces Sherri Geldin Innovation Fund

Columbus, OH—In honor of Sherri Geldin’s 20^th anniversary as director of the Wexner Center for the Arts, Wexner Center Foundation Chair Leslie H. Wexner and Ohio State Interim President and Vice-Chair of the Wexner Center Foundation Joseph A. Alutto have announced the creation of the Sherri Geldin Innovation Fund. The endowed fund will provide financial resources to pursue special research projects and unique initiatives above and beyond the center’s annual budget and its already robust array of programming. To date, nearly $600,000 has been raised by Wexner Center Foundation trustees alone, with more fundraising yet to occur. C. Robert Kidder, director of Morgan Stanley and of Merck & Co., Inc., supplied the lead gift, while Abigail Wexner spearheaded establishing the fund with fellow Wexner Center Foundation trustees.

Geldin was recently recognized for excellence in Arts Administration from the Governor's Awards for the Arts in Ohio. The award will be given on May 21, 2014.

Notes Leslie H. Wexner, “On the occasion of Sherri’s 20th year at the center and of the center’s upcoming 25th anniversary, this fund amplifies and reaffirms Sherri’s exemplary work at the Wexner Center and ensures the center’s vision and mission will not only be strengthened, but fulfilled for years to come.”

Says Alutto, “Sherri has helped establish one of the world’s leading multidisciplinary arts institutions right at the center of The Ohio State University.  This has occurred through her relentless pursuit of important programming and collaborations that often begin here in Columbus, yet reach around the globe. These funds ensure that Sherri's creative originality will continue to establish Ohio State as a focal point in the arts and aid the Wexner Center in realizing its visionary mission through her tenure and beyond.” 

Geldin has been director of the Wexner Center since September 1993, and prior to that served for many years as associate director of The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.