As the WSU Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, Nancy Spitzer has endowed a fund to help students experience art as a window into understanding the world.
When entering Nancy Spitzer’s home in Pullman, one immediately knows that she loves and appreciates art—her walls are arranged with many intriguing paintings, and here and there are several beautiful sculptures. Many of these works were created by WSU Faculty artists, whose works Nancy and her husband Ken admired and wanted to support. And though she did not attend WSU—she received her BA in Fine Arts at Western Washington University—much of her life and career have centered around WSU.
Spitzer had a 35-year career at WSU, first working in the agricultural economics department of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences and then for 30 years with the WSU Libraries, where she was the administrative assistant to the director of libraries and assisted the library development director. She retired in 2006.
Over the years, she has been a strong advocate for the arts at WSU and its many activities available to the Palouse community, much of which revolves around the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU. For many years, she has contributed to the funding of the museum’s exhibitions, as well as volunteering for other museum-related activities and events. It was even through her involvement in the museum that she met her husband Kenneth Spitzer, who was the associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the time they met.
“It was our mutual love of art that brought us together, but we discovered we had so many things in common,” said Nancy.
In 2000, they married and enjoyed eighteen years together—the two of them inseparable. They loved entertaining, travel, birding, photography, and, of course, art. Long-time supporters of the WSU Museum of Art even before they met, they continued that support, contributing to help pay for the costs of numerous museum exhibitions, and both served on the Board of the Friends of the Museum—Ken as president for several terms.
“Unfortunately, our time together ended in 2018 when Ken died after several years of illness,” said Nancy.
Ken enjoyed a 32-year career dedicated to WSU, initially as a faculty member teaching chemistry, but because of his leadership and problem-solving skills, he also served in several administrative roles, from interim director positions to director of the WSU Research and Technology Park, as well as associate vice provost for research. Ken also greatly appreciated WSU, and because he and Nancy shared so much enjoyment and enrichment through their mutual love of art and the museum, Nancy wanted to honor her husband with a gift of $50,000 to establish the Kenneth D. and Nancy A. Spitzer Student Experience Endowment at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.
An experiential endowment for students wanting to learn about art
Nancy, who is presently on the museum advisory council, chose an endowment fund to benefit student experiences in art. “Works of art are like a mirror that have been held up to our culture and to us as a people,” Nancy said. “Art teaches us about the world, it’s a window into human thought, emotion, and creativity, but you have to experience it to understand its power, and this fund is an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in such an experience—and there are hundreds of ways to do this.”
The endowment fund will support student experiences that include exhibitions and their expenses, program operations, event costs, student employment and internship opportunities, and students can also propose their own ideas to immerse themselves in art.
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the university’s art museum
WSU’s art museum was founded in 1974 in the WSU Fine Arts Center. In 1977, the Friends of the Museum was established to support its operational costs. Ken Spitzer was one of the founding members. Since the mid-seventies, the museum has presented approximately 390 diverse and notable exhibitions, from “Objects from the Getty Museum” to “The Art of Satire: Goya, Daumier, and Hogarth” to “German Expressionist Prints from the Museum of Modern Art” to “A Song to the Creator: Traditional Arts of Native American Women of the Plateau,” to most recently “Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love,” from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family—to name a few.
In the 2010s, a campaign was launched to build a stand-alone museum that reflected the academic excellence of the university. Through a gift by Jordan D. Schnitzer and many other donors—including Ken and Nancy Spitzer—the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, lovingly called the ‘Crimson Cube,’ welcomed nearly 4,000 people during its three-day building dedication.
“The more I learned about art and how it was made, the more it challenged and expanded the way I perceived the world around me,” she said. “That’s what I want art to do for our WSU students, and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum—an amazing place right in the center of campus—is a wonderful way for students to explore the world of art.”
In addition to her gift to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum, Nancy has also established the Ken and Nancy Spitzer Library Endowment and the Ken and Nancy Spitzer Scholarship in honor of Ken.
Visit WSU’s website celebrating the 50th anniversary of the WSU’s art museum.
Join the WSU community and the staff of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU in celebrating its 50th anniversary with events on September 26 and September 27.
To give a gift to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, call Kira MacPherson at (509) 335-4748 or email her at kira.walters@wsu.edu or visit the museum website.