What makes someone give more than $10 million to a museum? For Amy Meadows, the answer begins decades before the gift—with childhood art classes, repeated visits to museums, and the experience of learning that cultural institutions could feel like places where she belonged.

Amy joins Quanda Allen and Meredith Hanley to discuss her lifelong relationship with art and museums and the more than $10 million promised gift she and her husband Marc made to establish an education endowment at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Their gift supports far more than museum admission. It helps fund transportation, family access, museum educators, apprenticeships, adult learning, and the infrastructure that allows people to build lasting relationships with art.

The conversation also explores museum philanthropy, donor trust, board service, artists’ voices, the Obama portraits, Congressman Elijah Cummings, and what Amy learned through decades working directly with museum visitors and staff.

Ultimately, this is a story about the difference between access and belonging—and why the real impact of a major gift cannot always be measured by its dollar amount.