“My wife and I donate to the Cameron Art Museum because we know that culture matters. The CAM is a gift to our community; a gift that give back to us an ever-changing series of cultural experiences. We give because we know that although our relatively small donation might not make a difference, the combined contributions of many, many people like is actually will.”
-Jay and Deborah Thanner Wilmington, NC
“My decision to donate a number of artworks to the Cameron Art Museum was based on a number of things. First, I felt that the prints I donated would be an appropriate addition to those of the Belden Collection – in fact, it was the exhibition of the Belden Collection that first inspired me to consider this donation. Second, the Cameron is a welcoming place for everyone, from those beginning their discovery of wonderful art to those who appreciate, study, and even create art. It is a participatory museum with programs for young and old, addressing all areas of art. Finally, my husband and I loved and collected art on a small scale, always with the idea that we wanted to share. He would be so pleased to know that these works will be shared with everyone who loves art and the CAM as much as we have.”
-Barbara Fitzsimmons, Ed. D.
Leave a Legacy
Planned Giving with Cameron Art Museum allows donors to ensure that the passion of CAM lives on. Planning your legacy gift to the Cameron Art Museum will ensure your support in perpetuity so that you can continue to make a difference for years to come.
Plan your giving today and begin enjoying the tax benefits now. Bequests, IRA charitable rollovers, beneficiary designations, charitable gift annuity, charitable remainder trusts, and donations of art are all ways to connect CAM with your legacy.
Louis Belden Legacy Society
Join a special society dedicated to preserving the legacy of art in southeastern North Carolina.
In 2017, Louis Belden bequeathed his art collection, the gift of his lifetime, to Cameron Art Museum and its community. This unprecedented gifts of 136 works by 54 artists elevated CAM’s collection and included American and European artists Josef Albers, Marc Chagall, Alexander Calder, Judy Chicago, Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Pablo Picasso, and Robert Rauchenberg. These works offer a range of expressionism, experimentalism, and expansion of the terrain of postwar modernism and post-modernism.
Belden, who graduated from Harvard and lived in New York and San Francisco as an adult, had grown up in Indiana, but he spent his summers in Wilmington. Although he frequented major art museums in San Francisco, Belden wanted to give his collection to a museum where he knew it would truly make a difference. Belden was a serious collector, dedicated not only to acquiring an exceptional collection, but also to growing and challenging himself as a collector.
Belden’s gift deepened the museum’s collection in exciting and surprising ways, opening doors for scholarship, research, programming, and additional collecting.
In addition to works of art, Louis Belden created an endowment for acquisitions and for the care of the collection that will benefit Cameron Art Museum far into the future. For this reason, Cameron Art Museum’s planned giving society is named the Louis Belden Legacy Society, in memory of Belden, a philanthropist who saw the potential and importance of Cameron Art Museum.
Additional Information
For more information about planned giving and the Louis Belden Legacy Society, please contact Elizabeth Overton, Director of Development at eoverton@cameronartmuseum.org or by calling 910-395-5999.
Sign up for our newsletter to receive updates on events, exhibitions, and more!