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The Alice Griswold Weaving Endowment at the MSU Museum

Background

“I need three more lifetimes to learn everything about weaving,” was an oft-repeated phrase of Alice Griswold, one of the finest weavers of her time. As a master weaver and authority on weaving history, Alice devoted much of her life to learning everything that she could about the weaving arts and passing on her knowledge and love of her craft to students and others. When Alice passed away peacefully at home at the age of 97 on October 30, 2008, the weaving world lost a great treasure, artist and teacher.

Alice knew that the day would come when she could no longer personally share her art with others, but true to her nature, she found a way to continue to pass on her love and knowledge of the fibers arts. She left her treasured library and weaving collections to the MSU Museum as an educational resource for extraordinary value it held for weavers, researchers, and scholars. She passed away knowing that weavers will forever have access to her library and collection as an essential addition to the MSU Museum’s cultural history collections.

George’s Challenge

Alice’s son, George Griswold, has established a “challenge gift” that provides half of the needed funding for an endowment in his mother’s name. The endowment will provide support in perpetuity, making Alice’s collection accessible and providing for essential on-going care of the collections. George has offered this gift of $15,000 to the Alice Griswold Weaving Endowment with the provision that matching funds are donated by others in the community who understand the importance of Alice’s collections and the value of keeping her knowledge and art alive.

With a minimum of $30,000 in total gifts, the funds will be invested and the endowed fund will provide support for Alice’s collection so weavers now and for generations to come will enjoy and learn from the collections. With gifts totaling less than the requisite $30,000, all funds will be used directly for the collection support and care.

Making a Gift

Donors to this campaign will be recognized in newsletters and articles at the following levels:

Vicuna Donor - $1,000 or more Cashmere Donor - $500 or more

Silk Donor - $250 or more Linen Donor - $ 100 or more

Ramie Donor - up to $99

If you would like to make a gift in support of the Alice Griswold collections, please write a check to “Michigan State University,” with “Alice Griswold Weaving Endowment” on the memo line and mail it to MSU Development, 300 Spartan Way, East Lansing, MI 48824.

In addition, all gifts to MSU qualify as charitable deductions on federal income taxes, and for the Michigan tax credit as well. If you have questions or comments, or would like information about additional university donor society recognition, please contact MSU Museum Director of Development Annie James at 432-3354 or jamesan@msu.edu.