Toby Devan Lewis, Arts Patron and Philanthropist

2007 Martha Joseph Prize

Toby Devan Lewis could write the book on Progressive Corporation’s art collection. In fact, she’s in the process of doing that right now. Her book, The Progressive Collection: Three Decades of Creativity, Vision, Honesty, and Risk, will be published this year. And no one is better qualified to write than she, since for more than 20 years, 1985 to 2005, she was responsible for collecting its more than 6,300 works. One of country’s largest corporate collections of contemporary art, it is also rated as one of the top – and “one of the country’s most refreshing” – by Art & Auction magazine.

Lewis has also overseen the creation of Progressive’s annual reports, for which, since 1979, the company has commissioned an artist every year to design the piece, winning more than 500 awards in the process. She has won awards of her own as well, including her recent Award of Excellence from the International Association of Professional Art Advisors, a Northern Ohio Live Award of Achievement, a Women in Communications Award, and awards from the International Business Communicators and New York Art Directors, among others, as well as recognition from the New York’s New Museum of Contemporary Art for her “significant contribution in bringing the visual arts and creative experience to the work environment.”

Lewis serves on the boards of trustees of many arts (and other non-profit) organizations, including San Antonio’s ArtPace, Aspen’s Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art (where, early in her career, she worked in public relations and marketing), ideastream (Cleveland’s public radio and television complex), the Cleveland Film Society, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and New York’s New Museum of Contemporary Art, to which she has given her largest gift to date, a $4 million contribution.

A constant supporter of young and emerging artists, Lewis recently created the Toby Fund, to give graduating Master of Fine Arts students at several schools grants of $10,000 each. In curating the Progressive Collection, Lewis was always known for finding and nurturing young and then-unknown artists, and never shying away from controversial works. As San Francisco art dealer Richard Polsky said, "Toby takes more chances than any corporate curator I know.”