Patronage

Dimitris Daskalopoulos is a collector of contemporary art, the custodian of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, Greece, and the founder of the NEON organization. He is also a Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Chairman of the Collections Council of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, an active member of the Tate International Council, the Leadership Council of the New Museum, and a founding partner of the Whitechapel’s Future Fund.

The D.Daskalopoulos Collection founded in 2010 the post of The Daskalopoulos Curator, International Art at Tate, to focus on contemporary and emerging international art, specifically from non-western regions, central to Tate’s commitment to broadening the geographical scope of its collection. The D.Daskalopoulos Collection continues to fund this post, now renamed The Daskalopoulos Senior Curator, International Art (Africa, Asia & Middle East), which is currently held by Clara Kim. In 2013, Cildo Meireles’ Babel (2001) was purchased jointly by Tate (with the assistance of the Latin American Acquisitions Committee) and the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, as a promised giſt to Tate.

Dimitris Daskalopoulos is a founding partner of the Whitechapel’s Future Fund (2011). His funding has enabled the Whitechapel Gallery to realize 3 projects over the next 4 years: a permanent post, The Daskalopoulos Director of Education & Public Programmes, currently held by Dr. Richard Martin, who runs the Gallery’s programme of learning with talks, events, courses, schools, family and community programmes; a new initiative, the NEON Curatorial Award; and a cultural programme between Athens and London, the NEON Curatorial Exchange.

Dimitris Daskalopoulos is also a supporter of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. In 2015, the D.Daskalopoulos Collection created and funded a new post, originally The Daskalopoulos Curator of Engagement, now renamed the Daskalopoulos Digital Producer and currently held by Lucy Armitage.

Dimitris Daskalopoulos is also a Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation and Chairman of the Collections Council of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. At the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation he has contributed to a discretionary curators’ fund for acquisitions, which he established as a giſt to the Foundation. He has also been active in the support of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (SRGF) acquisitions program through his membership of the International Director’s Council. In 2003, Mr. Daskalopoulos and the International Director’s Council jointly acquired Matthew Barney’s sculpture, Chrysler Imperial (2002), which aſter 17 years of co-ownership was gifted in its entirety to the museum in 2020.

In 2017, the D.Daskalopoulos Collection created and funded a curatorial post at the museum, Daskalopoulos Curator, Contemporary Art. The position has been created in perpetuity, and is currently held by Guggenheim curator, Katherine Brinson.

In 2018, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation honored Dimitris Daskalopoulos at the Guggenheim International Gala for his innovative philanthropy in the arts.

In 2014, Independent Curators International (ICI) honored Dimitris Daskalopoulos with the Leo Award. The award acknowledged his visionary approach to collecting, through the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, and his work in establishing NEON, a non-profit organization committed to bringing contemporary culture closer to everyone in Greece.

Over the years he has contributed funds to facilitate exhibitions and acquisitions at major public art institutions worldwide, including Tate, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, MCA Chicago, the New Museum, Carnegie International, Venice Biennale the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Greece and the Athens Biennale.

In 2022, it was announced that a major body of important contemporary artworks from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection was donated to 4 museums (EMST, TATE and jointly to Guggenheim and MCA Chicago), in 3 countries over 2 continents to create a pioneering network of collaborations and synergies.