Currier Museum of Art

Currier Museum of Art

The Currier Museum of Art was established in 1929 from the estate of former New Hampshire Governor Moody Currier and his wife, Hannah Slade Currier. The museum opened with a core collection of European and American paintings, decorative arts, and a mandate to serve as a public art institution for the city of Manchester. Its permanent holdings have since swelled to over 15,000 objects, including the only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings in New England open to the public — the Zimmerman House and the Toufic H. Kalil House. The endowment’s asset base is concentrated in real property and the art collection itself, spanning 17th-century Dutch masterworks donated by philanthropists Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, the Stahl Collection of prints and drawings, and multiple physical sites. The holdings include the main museum building at 150 Ash Street, the Zimmerman House, the Kalil House, and the mixed-use Chandler House. The museum does not publish a separate investment portfolio or allocation breakdown, but its operational model reflects a cultural endowment that funds programming, acquisitions, and historic site maintenance through a blend of operating revenue, grantmaking memberships such as Blue Star Museums and Bank of America Museums on Us, and donor-advised support. Board president Steve Duprey heads the trustees alongside past president Thomas J. Silvia of Vineyard Capital Partners, linking the institution to regional commercial real estate and investment circles. Team size and total deployment are not publicly reported. In September 2024, the museum appointed Jordana Pomeroy — formerly chief curator at the New Britain Museum of American Art — as Director and CEO, signaling a continued focus on curatorial leadership and community programming. Structurally, the Currier operates as a hybrid endowment and civic institution, distinguishing it from pure investment pools — its return is measured in both cultural output and asset stewardship. The board of trustees provides governance, while the CEO directs curatorial and operational strategy rather than managing a dedicated investment team. This architecture forces a close coupling between fundraising, earned revenue, and the care of illiquid hard assets, a posture more akin to a land-holding foundation than a traditional endowment model.