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arts environment, and I’ve been
working with them on how to
expand it.
”
The couple has long been
interested in art. He collected
and displayed posters when
he was in high school, and she
went to antique and automo-
tive shows with her parents.
The first item they collected
together was a Jean Dubuffet
lithograph.
Their continuing arts advis-
er and friend is Lois Pincus
Cohn, first known through her
Birmingham gallery.
“The local Jewish artists
represented in our collec-
tion include photographer
Elayne Gross and painters
Marcia Freedman and Robert
Schefman,
” Rebecca has report-
ed.
“Other Jewish artists
whose works we have include
Magdalena Abakanowicz,
a Polish sculptor; Pierre
Alechinsky, a French print-
maker; and Sol LeWitt, an
American conceptual artist.
”

EDUCATION AND ART
Alan said that an important
goal of their gifts to arts institu-
tions is to take variable costs off
the table. With the Ross fund-
ing, MSU exhibition staging
expenses, such as insurance and
setup, can be covered.
“The Broad Museum has
three focuses — students, facul-
ty and community,
” Alan said.
“The Broad is executing exhibi-
tions in concert with the facul-
ty’s curriculum. The exhibitions
on display are enhancing cur-
rent syllabuses.
“The students are being
taught, and then they go to the
museum that expands what’s
going on. This is really the
mission of the true academic
at a university museum, but
the exhibitions are not only
educational to the students and
faculty. They also perform that
same function for the outside
community.
”
Alan, the descendant of
Holocaust survivors, found his
current work through an ad

in the Detroit Jewish News. He
now heads up Gallagher Fire
Equipment, a fire suppression
and alarm contractor, and
Rebecca takes care of account
responsibilities for the firm.
Alan graduated, cum
laude, from the MSU College
of Agriculture and Natural
Resources in 1977 and earned
a master’s degree in business
administration from Babson in
1979. He met his wife through
work at a tech venture in
Silicon Valley. After living in
New York for several years, the
two moved to Alan’s home state
of Michigan in 1990.
“The MSU Broad has become
a significant part of our lives,
”
Rebecca said. “Its mission close-
ly aligns with our belief that art
is an extremely important com-
ponent of everyday living.
”
They have supported
MSU arts programs beyond
the museum by creating the
Alan and Rebecca Ross DIA
Enrichment Fund at MSU
to strengthen collaborations

between the DIA and the
Department of Art, Art History
and Design in the MSU College
of Arts and Letters.
Both Alan and Rebecca read-
ily express their commitments
to art, which has them traveling
to different art centers to view a
variety of works.
“We like a lot of art,
” Rebecca
said. “We like the thought
behind the pieces and what
each artist was trying to convey,
and that sometimes makes us
more interested in a particular
artist or a particular type of art.
A lot of our pieces are concep-
tual.
”
Alan commented, “
Art is so
personal. Everyone looks at
it differently. That’s the good
thing. It’s thought provoking.
”
The couple looks forward to
doing more traveling to expe-
rience the different kinds of art
they will discover through a
variety of presenters. One trip
they anticipate will take them to
Israel and the art centers in that
country.

Alan and Rebecca Ross stand in
front of the work “Untitled” (London
Aquatics Center) by Zaha Hadid, gifted
by the couple to the museum.

ARTS&LIFE
ART

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