Suzanne and David Booth

Suzanne Deal Booth has long been committed to promoting visual and cultural heritage. A native of Texas, Suzanne attended UT Austin and then Rice University, graduating cum laude with a degree in art history. As a work study student at Rice, and later during her studies at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts, Suzanne had the opportunity to work directly under the tutelage of art collector and philanthropist Dominique de Menil. This marked the beginning of a meaningful exposure to sophisticated cultural patronage, and has served as an ongoing inspiration throughout Suzanne’s career and life.

Suzanne has worked at notable institutions including les Monuments Historiques in France, the Kimball Art Museum, the Menil Collection, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and at the Museums of New Mexico with a grant from the Smithsonian Institution. Her post-graduate fellowship, funded by the Kress Foundation, was at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, where she restored important 20th century paintings for the permanent collection.

After completing her master’s degree, Suzanne moved to Los Angeles to work at the J. Paul Getty Trust. Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Suzanne met her husband David G. Booth, an entrepreneurial financial manager. With Suzanne’s interest and passion in the world of art and culture, they created The Booth Heritage Foundation, and soon founded The Friends of Heritage Preservation (FOHP), a non-profit organization that responds to critical preservation needs in the United States and abroad. For the past 10 years Suzanne has served as the Director of FOHP which has accomplished 29 preservation and conservation projects spanning four continents (www.fohpinfo.org).

She currently serves on the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Geffen Playhouse at UCLA, the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU, The Centre Pompidou Foundation, and on the Art Committee for the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Most recently she served as a gubernatorial appointee on the board of the California Cultural and Historical Endowment for the State of California, where she was responsible for the disbursement of $125 million. In 2001, she and her family moved to Rome for a year, where they established the Booth Family Rome Prize Fellowship for Historic Preservation and Conservation at the American Academy in Rome. In addition to her philanthropic organizations Suzanne has recently started her own publishing company, Orsini Press, and has edited and published her father’s book, Venus Rising.

Suzanne and her husband David collect a wide variety of artworks, specifically Renaissance and contemporary art. Suzanne is particularly interested in promoting cultural and artistic exchange, as evidenced in her recent sponsorship of the Louise Bourgeois Exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, in her lead gift for the acquisition of a work by Los Angeles artist Jorge Pardo to the Centre Pompidou, as well as the sponsorship of a visiting artist program at the Pont Aven School of Art in Brittany.  Through these varied endeavors, Suzanne strives for the integration of her family, profession and community and seeks to promote profound experiences within a diverse cultural landscape.