Re: “Gifts that keep on giving,” Page A1, Jan. 20.

I was pleased to see Doug MacCash’s front page article on the New Orleans Museum of Art’s highly successful centennial collection. Anne Milling, organized and effective, combined with our revered former director, John Bullard, spear-headed an effort that redounds to the museum’s greater glory.
I expected the article to continue by pointing out that our museum seems to be on a roll now, under the leadership of our new director, Susan Taylor.

Ms. Taylor has been here about a year and a half, and in that time the museum has become energized and its attendance has soared. She has been deeply involved with the centennial. She has made “the asks” for some of the significant “million dollar” items which were given; and she has assisted in cataloguing, as well as hanging the show.
It has been said that people give to people and not to causes. Having given many items to the museum over the years, I feel that to be true to an extent.

I always felt that giving to the museum while John Bullard was in charge was a guarantee that the paintings and sculptures that my husband, Sydney, and I treasured, would be handled with care.
I feel that way now that Susan Taylor is our director. Under her leadership, the museum is setting the tempo for our other local cultural institutions. It is attracting lots of different people, it is adapting to this age of technology in which we live, and its programming is a grab bag of all sorts of traditional and surprising goodies.
Perhaps, the greatest gift of all for the museum’s second century is Susan Taylor.

Walda Besthoff

New Orleans