vanwieren.org

Dede Wilsey took part in the capital campaign for the museum in 1996 and due to her sincerity with the project, in 1998 she was elevated to the post of President of the Fine Arts Museums’ board.  The prestige associated with this position notwithstanding, she had no idea of soon being implicated in the fog city politics. She had to receive the first jolt when the museum board decided to vote for the project. As she was waiting for the board results, she was faced with a strange predicament of losing the campaign, though she was not used to the word ‘losing’. Dede Wilsey lost and wept. But that was not the end of her enterprise. She, supported ardently by her husband, vowed to rebuild the museum privately, and she did it.

Dede Wilsey would go to work. In her command-post dressing portion, she would dial her prospective clients for fundraising and simultaneously undertake her hairdo and makeup. She initiated the project by first planning the museum floor. She wrote down the names of prospective donors on small notepads and placed all of them in various parts of the museum. Dede Wilsey even named some of the galleries after the names of different city notables, and then vowed to sell those galleries to them. She was successful a great deal.