Shaping the University of Miami's artistic landscape
The couple married in 1956, built successful careers, and raised three children in suburban Miami-Dade County. Staunch advocates of the arts, they stayed deeply engaged with their alma mater—Myrna as a past president of the Lowe Art Museum's Friends of Art and Sheldon as a member of the Citizens Board, Friends of Theatre, and Friends of Art, among other endeavors—and with the greater South Florida community.
The Palleys also shared a decades-long passion for collecting art glass, which led to the creation of the Myrna and Sheldon Palley Pavilion for Contemporary Glass and Studio Arts at the Lowe. Opened in 2008 and funded in part by the couple's $1.7 million gift, the Palley Pavilion houses the couple's world-class collection of more than 130 glass artworks, plus other glass and ceramic works by a range of renowned artists.
Beyond the Lowe, the Palleys established the Myrna and Sheldon Palley Glass Artist Lecture Series in 2018, bringing internationally acclaimed glass artists to campus and fostering meaningful dialogue about the evolving landscape of contemporary art. They were also instrumental in establishing the art glass program in the Department of Art and Art History in the College of Arts and Sciences and were generous supporters of the Department of Theatre Arts, Miami Athletics, and the School of Law.
Myrna Palley passed away in 2020, and Sheldon Palley died last year. Their children, Lisa, Donna, and Kevin, continue to honor their parents' legacy at the University. On April 6, as a prelude to the University's Centennial Celebration, the Palley Family gathered on the Coral Gables Campus for the official unveiling of a monumental abstract sculpture that is among the most visible manifestations of that legacy.
A gift from the family, Lady, by the late American sculptor John Henry, is a strikingly angular, red-painted metal sculpture more than 40 feet tall. It stands on a section of lawn next to Lakeside Village, facing the Lowe and Palley Pavilion across Stanford Drive.
At the unveiling, Josh Friedman, senior vice president for development and alumni relations, hailed Lady as a 'magnificent piece of art.' Crediting Tola Porter, the Lowe's assistant director of learning, engagement, and technology, with the metaphor, Friedman compared Lady to the University's students, with 'feet planted on the ground and an arm pointed toward the sky.'
'As our community celebrates the University's first century, we want to ensure that every person who has left their mark on the U is remembered and celebrated,' Friedman said. 'It is fitting that today we commemorate this wonderful gift from the Palley Family, which enhances our campus landscape, [and which] will be here for our second century.'
Leonidas G. Bachas, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, recalled his first interactions with the Palleys when he joined the University in 2010. 'They were the first donors I met, and I could tell that they had a passion for art and for our students,' Bachas said. 'Art is so important. We are not going to have a great university if we don't have a strong arts program and a great museum. We have the best university-based museum of art glass, and that's all because of the Palley Family.'
Jill Deupi, Beaux Arts director and chief curator of the Lowe Art Museum, noted that Myrna and Sheldon Palley embodied the original meaning of the word philanthropy, which derives from the Greek word for 'love of humankind.'
'Through their deep and sustained love of humanity and, by extension, the communities about which they cared so deeply—both on and off the University's campus—Myrna and Sheldon Palley embodied the philanthropic ethos,' Deupi said. 'The mark that they have left on the University of Miami and the Lowe Art Museum, like the legacy that they have passed down to their remarkable family, is a high-water mark toward which we can all aspire.'
'Myrna and Sheldon Palley thought it important to share, and share they did: of themselves, their time, and their blessings. Lady embodies all that and more,' said their daughter, Lisa Palley. 'She enhances the University's physical space and amplifies one's emotions upon seeing her, a beneficent presence, there to welcome and watch over everyone and broaden everyone's experiences while on the University of Miami campus. Lady has come home.'
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