Marilynn Thoma

Background

About Marilynn Thoma

Marilynn Thoma is a Chicago-based philanthropic leader and an active art collector. In Chicago, she serves on the boards of cultural icons including Art Institute of Chicago, and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Chicago Humanities Festival, where she is a member of the executive committee.Her interest in art has extended to board involvement with art museums in the Bay Area, Santa Fe, Houston, Austin and New York City. Thoma has built one of the most significant collections of art created 1550-1825 in Spanish South America that toured internationally in 2006-08 and has been exhibited at Art Institute of Chicago, LACMA, Blanton Museum and the Cantor Center at Stanford. With her husband Carl, Thoma founded and operates Thoma Foundation and a more recent operating foundation, Carl and Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation from which they support and initiate programs within designated fields of art.Through their foundations, the Thomas have endowed university chairs at Stanford University in Management Science and The Arts and Humaniities. They are the lead funders of the 2016 Chicago Shakespeare Our City, Our Shakespeare Campaign for "The Yard" and new stage on Navy Pier.