The Brooklyn Museum has announced a $5 million gift from the Leon Levy Foundation to create an endowment for the position of museum director.

The gift — the largest the museum has received from a foundation in more than a decade — will establish the Shelby White and Leon Levy Director of the Brooklyn Museum, in honor of the foundation and founding trustee Shelby White, one of the first signatories of the Giving Pledge. Arnold L. Lehman, the museum's director since 1997, will continue to serve in that role. Prior to joining the Brooklyn Museum, Lehman was director of the Baltimore Museum of Art for almost two decades and currently is serving, for a second time, as chair of the Cultural Institutions Group in New York City. Later this month, Lehman will receive an honorary degree from the Pratt Institute in recognition of his local and national leadership in the museum field.

"I am honored and delighted to be the first Shelby White and Leon Levy Director of the Brooklyn Museum and am immensely grateful to Shelby White and the Leon Levy Foundation for this extraordinary leadership gift, which will have an enduring impact on the work of directors to come," said Lehman. "This gift is a critical component in our efforts to strengthen our endowment."