Oct. 3, 2001

The Duke Endowment of Charlotte will give $2.5 million to name the central area of Duke University's new Nasher Museum of Art for Durham's Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, university President Nannerl O. Keohane announced Tuesday.

The Mary D.B.T. Semans Grand Hall is a 10,000-square-foot atrium with a glass ceiling serving as a meeting area and common entrance to the five pavilions that will form Duke's Nasher Museum of Art. Construction of the $20 million facility is scheduled to begin next spring.

"Mary Semans has given a great deal of her time and considerable talents to this university, The Duke Endowment and the arts," Keohane said. "I couldn't imagine a more appropriate tribute to her than helping to build a facility that she has done so much to encourage. We thank The Duke Endowment for this wonderful recognition, as well as for its generosity."

Semans, a member of Duke's class of 1939, former university trustee, and trustee and chairman emeritus of The Duke Endowment, is the great granddaughter of Washington Duke, for whom Duke University is named. She is the granddaughter of his son, Benjamin Newton Duke, and great niece of another son, James Buchanan Duke, whose bequest funded Duke University and created The Duke Endowment.

"The trustees of the Endowment had been thinking of ways to honor our beloved chairman emeritus," said Elizabeth H. Locke, president of the endowment. "At the same time, we learned how deeply involved Mary was in the planning for Duke's wonderful new art museum. Duke's need and the endowment's wishes came together in this gift, which is, like Mary herself, full of love."

Semans has a distinguished record as a philanthropist and patron of the performing arts. A founding trustee of the N.C. School of the Arts, she also served on the Durham City Council. She was awarded Duke's highest honor, the University Medal for Distinguished Service, in 1986.

A citation, whose words will appear on a plaque in the new museum, reads:

"The Mary D.B.T. Semans Grand Hall

"This gathering place and gateway to the Duke University art collections is named by The Duke Endowment for its longtime trustee and chairman Mary D.B.T. Semans in recognition of her devotion to the arts and to her alma mater."

The Nasher Museum of Art, designed by architect Rafael Vinoly, is named for Raymond D. Nasher, a member of Duke's class of 1943 and internationally known art collector. The new facility, expected to open in 2003, will be located between Duke's East and West campuses at the southeast corner of Campus Drive and Anderson Road.