HENRY AND JOAN LEE SCULPTURE ENDOWMENT

The Friends of the Public Garden plays a vital role in caring for 42 sculptures, tablets, plaques and fountains, in the Boston Common, Public Garden, and Commonwealth Avenue Mall. The Friends spends an average of $100,000 each year for regular cleaning as well as conservation and restoration when needed. The best professionals are hired to do this work. The Friends also responds to graffiti damage, making repairs immediately. This regular maintenance saves tens of thousands of dollars in the long run; if a piece is allowed to deteriorate, its full restoration is very costly. The Friends sculpture care program ensures this significant collection is maintained in excellent condition.

In 2010, to honor founding President, and now President Emeritus, Henry Lee as part of the Friends 40^th Anniversary celebrations, the Henry Lee Conservation Fund was established as a spending fund for sculpture care.

Given the cost of maintaining the collection in the best possible condition, this fund will be spent down within the foreseeable future. Therefore, the Friends Board of Directors decided there was a need to provide an endowment sufficient to support the long-term care of the parks’ sculpture.

In 2016, the Friends established the Henry and Joan Lee Sculpture Endowment in honor of the Lees’ legacy of commitment to the parks and their sculpture. The fund’s mission is to provide for the ongoing care of the public art in the Common, Garden and Mall, the largest concentration of public art in the city.

For questions or more information, please contact Perry Skaggs, Development Associate, at 617-723-8144 or perry@friendsofthepublicgarden.org. Contributions can be sent via mail to the Friends of the Public Garden, 69 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108 or can be made online.