$20 million is biggest arts gift ever for UC Davis
S.F. philanthropist’s donation ensures school’s creative leadership
San Francisco philanthropist Maria Manetti Shrem has promised UC Davis the largest gift ever to arts at the school — $20 million to create the multifaceted “Maria Manetti Shrem Arts Renaissance” program at the College of Letters and Science.
The donation, which will come posthumously from Manetti Shrem’s estate, will fund eight endowments for arts and design and create three new faculty chairs. The gift will also pay for faculty positions as well as the “California Studio: Manetti Shrem Artist Residencies,” a program that brings teaching artists and visiting lecturers to the university, and launch new fellowships for graduate students in the school’s prestigious Art Studio major.
In addition to the pledged gift, $800,000 will be given annually to begin funding the endowments immediately.
Manetti Shrem said the name “Renaissance” is a nod both to her Florentine background, as well as her hope that the endowments spark a creative resurgence that extends beyond the campus.
“UC Davis has long been a quiet powerhouse of creativity and home to some of the world’s most influential artists,” Estella Atekwana, dean of the College of Letters and Science, said in a statement. “With this incredible gift, Maria, our greatest champion, helps us build upon our storied history while securing our future as a leader in the creative arts.”
Manetti Shrem, the founder of two fashion companies, and her husband Jan Shrem, whose careers included opening a publishing house and a vineyard, are prolific philanthropists who have given generously to UC Davis over the years. In 2011, their $10 million gift helped establish the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art. The on-campus museum, which opened in 2016, has pre
sented several exhibitions focusing on artists with connections to the school, including former professors Wayne Thiebaud and Mike Henderson as well as graduates like sculptor Deborah Butterfield.
With this pledge, Manetti Shrem’s total giving to the university will exceed $43 million.
“When Maria says ‘renaissance,’ she really means it,” UC Davis Chancellor Gary S. May said in a statement. “Her comprehensive support across arts and design will help UC Davis offer even more excellent programs to our students and our community.”
Jan Shrem, 94, was born in Colombia to Lebanese parents and moved to the United States as a teenager. After founding a successful publishing business in Japan, he opened the Clos Pegase Winery in Napa Valley in 1983. The couple married in 2012 and sold the winery in 2013.
Together they have supported organizations including the San Francisco Opera, Festival Napa Valley (founding benefactors), the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and KQED. The Metropolitan Opera in New York, operatic tenor Michael Fabiano’s ArtSmart national education program, the Royal Drawing School and the King’s Foundation in the United Kingdom have also enjoyed their patronage.
In 2019, the couple gave the lead gift of $18 million to establish the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Neurology Clinic at UCSF.
Manetti Shrem has been vocal about her plan to give away as much of their fortune as possible during her lifetime. This has included liquidating much of their noted art collection, including the May 2023 sale of the Picasso painting “Femme nue couchée avec un chat” at Sotheby’s for $21.2 million.
“My mission at this stage of my life is to give with warm hands,” Manetti Shrem, 83, told the Chronicle during an interview at her San Francisco home, sitting near a replica of the Picasso. “In this third stage of my life, I made the decision to detach from material things. Why wait for things to be sold after my death by my trustee? I want to see the money go out while I am alive to enjoy it, and the money in these eight endowments will enrich the lives of 30,000 students.”
In 2023, Manetti Shrem received the UC Davis Medal, the university’s highest honor, in recognition of her philanthropy. She’s also been honored by the city of San Francisco in 2022, which proclaimed June 22 Manetti Shrem Day for Philanthropy. In Italy, she has been awarded the keys to the city of Florence, and is a Grand Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy.
Born in Florence, Manetti Shrem spent her career in fashion, first running the company Gaya Knits, which she founded in her early 20s. She lost the company when she divorced her first husband, Edward de George, and moved to a commune in Berkeley to marry her second husband, Stephen Farrow. Together, the two created Manetti Farrow Inc., a fashion distributor that helped bring Italian luxury brands Gucci and Fendi to the United States in the 1980s.
Since selling the company in 1992, she has mostly devoted her time to arts patronage. It’s fitting then that her latest gift will help establish the Maria Manetti Shrem Institute for Sustainable Design, Fashion and Textile at the school’s department of design. The institute will be especially focused on how technology can create more eco-friendly practices in the fashion industry.
Manetti Shrem said that she sees the College of Letters and Science, the new institute and the museum working together “holistically.”
“When I was in fashion, sustainability wasn’t something we talked about,” she said. “My wish is that the department’s research center for sustainable studies and practice will help create a global impact.”
In recognition of the gift, the school is naming an area of the campus the Maria Manetti Shrem Arts District. Existing programs and spaces will also be renamed, including the Maria Manetti Shrem Art Hall and Maria Manetti Shrem Art Studio Program.