Giving and Receiving: Memoirs of an Immigrant Curator and Philanthropist tells the incredible life story of our cofounder, Marica Vilcek. With poignancy and great insight, Marica shares the exceptional circumstances that led to the creation of the Vilcek Foundation, which she and her husband Jan created 25 years ago to champion immigrant contributions to the arts and sciences. 

“This memoir reflects a life shaped by intellectual rigor, resilience, and a deep commitment to art, culture, and to supporting immigrant creators whose work strengthens our society,” says Rick Kinsel, president of the Vilcek Foundation. “Many know Marica as a philanthropist and a patron of the arts. This memoir invites us beyond that public role into the personal story behind it. A journey shaped by displacement, endurance, and by a profound belief in the power of culture to connect, preserve, and to heal.” 

Art As a Catalyst for Change

Marica was born in war-torn Czechoslovakia. When she was just 12 years old, a Communist regime took hold of her home country, which curtailed Marica’s hopes of working in the arts and deepened her resolve to build a better life in the United States. 

Marica and her husband, Jan Vilcek, later defected from their home country in 1964 and arrived in New York City the following year. While Jan started in a research position at the New York University School of Medicine, Marica became a volunteer librarian for the Brooklyn Museum and later secured a position at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Due to her competency and hard work, Marica rose to the position of associate curator in charge of the accessions and cataloguing department over her 32-year tenure at The Metropolitan Museum. There she reshaped the cataloging process to embrace the first generation of digitization. 

Giving and Receiving

Marica’s monumental impact on the development of art scholarship and museum spaces extends far beyond her work as a curator. As a trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Marica endowed four curatorial positions: Two in the American Wing, one in the Department of Drawings and Prints, and one in the Department of Arms and Armor. 

She and her husband also endowed the Jan and Marica Vilcek Curatorial Program at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts (IFA). This initiative provides funds for two PhD candidates per year in addition to supporting a yearly series of museum-based courses taught by prominent curators from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Frick Collection, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and similar institutions. Due to the program’s success, the IFA renamed the great hall of the James B. Duke House in her honor. 

In 2024, the Vilcek Foundation created the Marica Vilcek Prize to acknowledge and support professionals in art history, museum work, art conservation and preservation, or other art history professions. 

“Helping young scholars of promise find their way into the complicated world of museum curating has always seemed crucial to me, for as a young woman curator I struggled mightily to break into museum work, and I have witnessed many others engaged in similar struggles since my arrival,” Marica writes.

A Lasting Legacy

Endlessly generous and hardworking, Marica was not satisfied with solely supporting other institutions. She envisioned starting a foundation as a way to directly contribute to the artistic and scientific communities that shaped her and Jan’s lives and careers. 

“Jan and I came to realize that our greatest pleasure in life had always been in uplifting others,” Marica writes. “Whether I was helping curators with art-historical research, assisting newly arrived immigrants with adjusting to life in America, or encouraging my interns to discover the joy of museum work, I had always felt best when aiding, sharing, and mentoring…so we discussed starting a foundation.”

The Vilcek Foundation was officially established on December 1, 2000. Since then, the organization has awarded more than $17 million in prizes and grants to institutions and people aligned with its mission, in addition to the over $330 million in individual giving from the Vilceks. 

Marica Vilcek still serves as an honorary trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as chairman of the board of trustees of the Institute of Fine Arts. Giving and Receiving was coauthored by award-winning biographer, curator, and art historian Justin Spring.