Projects
MNR 561, Gustave Courbet, La Falaise d’Etretat après l’orage, 1870, © Musée d’Orsay / Patrice Schmidt
Exhibitions
AFMO supports exhibitions held at the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie.
Photo: Francois-Xavier Watine, WebStyleStory. October 2025
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Beyond its dedication to the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie, AFMO is committed to supporting both established and emerging contemporary artists. As such, we are proud to have supported the following contemporary exhibitions at both museums, including:
English Resources
AFMO promotes accessibility by supporting English language educational initiatives, including wall texts, museum tours, printed materials, and digital resources.
Thanks to the generous support of our patrons, in September 2023, the Musée d’Orsay’s nave welcomed two new screens facing each other. Every day since then, these have aired a short film in both French and English, featuring archive images of the Orsay building and recounting the story of a 1900 train station turned world famous fine arts museum.
Bilingual Museums
Publishing
AFMO provides critical funding for the English translation of thematic publishing projects such as the highly successful Pastels album (2023), which presents over one hundred pastel masterpieces meticulously preserved in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay. The latest album, Paris (2025), celebrates the many depictions of our beloved city in the Musée d’Orsay’s collections, taking readers on a singular and perceptive journey to the heart of the City of Light in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Improving Visitor Experience
Photo: Francois-Xavier Watine, WebStyleStory. October 2025
In addition to the two screens airing the informational short film in English and French, AFMO supports museum and gallery renovations to enable state-of-the-art settings.
AFMO has also contributed to the development of newly enhanced welcome spaces to offer visitors a new and improved experience, including new resting areas and new tools to help them navigate the museum and galleries from the start.
We are particularly proud of the ‘Holidays at the Orsay’ program which nurtures children’s creativity through creative workshops, playful museum explorations and learning experiences. You can find out more about this program here.
In acknowledgement of AFMO’s contribution to the 2024-2025 Capital Campaign, a plaque with our name was installed in the Clock Room on the fifth floor.
Research
The 2025 Year-End Appeal campaign marked the launch of a five-year commitment by AFMO in support of provenance and restitution research at the Musée d’Orsay. AFMO is proud to support a project that contributes to transparency, historical understanding, and the responsible stewardship of cultural heritage.
MNR 840, Auguste Renoir, Petit port, 1841-1919, © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Michel Urtado
Art Gifts
AFMO patrons have also made significant art gifts to the Musée d’Orsay such as Le Dimanche by Ernest Meissonier in 2024.
Ernest Meissonier, Le Dimanche, 1850, Huile sur panneau, © Musée d’Orsay, dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Sophie Crépy
Support
If you wish to make a donation to AFMO in support of the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie,
please click here.
If you wish to join AFMO,
please click here.
To find out more, please email membership@aforsay.org
Grants to Museums
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Provenance and Restitution
AFMO has committed to supporting provenance and restitution research at the Musée d’Orsay for the next five years.
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Holidays at the Orsay
AFMO supports the expanded Holidays at the Orsay program, a bilingual initiative to nurture art among the museum’s youngest visitors.
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Contemporary Art Programs
AFMO supports the Contemporary Art programs at both the Orsay and the Orangerie.
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Paris 1874. Inventing Impressionism
AFMO supported the exhibition Paris 1874. Inventing Impressionism at the heart of the 150th anniversary of Impressionism celebrations in 2024.
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The President's Fund: Enhancing the Visitor Experience.
AFMO contributed to the development of newly enhanced welcome spaces to offer visitors a new and improved experience.
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Pastels. From Millet to Redon
AFMO supported Pastels. From Millet to Redon, the spring 2023 exhibition at the Orsay, as well as the English-language edition of the Pastels album.
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Homage to Ellsworth Kelly
In 2018, AFMO supported the exhibitionThe Waterlilies, American Abstract Painting and the Last Monet.
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Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952). Pioneer American Woman Photographer
AFMO acquired for the Orsay the last portfolio available on the market of 119 works by Frances B. Johnston.
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Marble Sculptures Cleaning Project
AFMO contributed to the restoration and cleaning of 41 sculptures to bring them back to their state of grace.
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Marcie-Rivière Collection
When, in January 2016, the Musée d’Orsay received the Zeïneb and Jean-Pierre Marcie-Rivière Collection, AFMO granted funds for the protective box framing of 50 paintings.
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Catalogue “Frédéric Bazille and the Birth of Impressionism”
AFMO supported the English version of the catalogue for this exhibition held in 2016.
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Catalogue “An American in Paris: Architectural Drawings from the Neil Levine Collection”
The American Friends were pleased to support the catalogue, published in English and French for the 2016 exhibition of Neil Levine’s collection of architectural drawings.
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Monet Water Lilies Galleries Renovation
In April 2015, AFMO announced a grant toward improvements in the galleries which hold some of the premiere cultural attractions in all of France.
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Restoration of Gustave Courbet’s Masterpiece “The Artist’s Studio”
In 2013, AFMO granted $50,000 toward the restoration of Courbet’s “The Artist’s Studio’ and was pleased to announce a second grant of $150,000 in 2015.
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Herter Chaises
AFMO granted funds for the Orsay to purchase a pair of rare “Moorish style” chairs made by the Herter Brothers.
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Saving Liberty
AFMO funded the restoration of a bronze figure of Liberty Enlightening the World by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
Acknowledgements
American Friends Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie thank our members and donors for their generous and enthusiastic support of the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie’s programs and operations.
With special thanks to the following for their continued support:
GRoW@Annenberg, Regina and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten
The Marlene and Spencer Hays Foundation
Frédéric Bazille, Réunion de famille, entre 1867 et 1868. Achat avec la participation de Marc Bazille, frère de Frédéric Bazille, 1905, © Musée d’Orsay, Dist. RMN-Grand Palais, Patrice Schmidt