The Boston Public Library Foundation, which raises public awareness and philanthropic support for the BPL’s Central Library and 24 branches, has named Lisa Bevilaqua, a former Isabella Steward Gardner Museum fundraising official, to serve as its next executive director.
“Lisa’s dynamic understanding of development strategies, ranging from events to major gifts to government fundraising, will be incredibly useful to the Library Foundation as it works to expand its support of the BPL,” Jeff Hawkins, the foundation’s chairman, said in a statement about the appointment released by the library.
At the Gardner, an art museum in Boston’s Fenway neighborhood, Bevilaqua was the director of development and played an “instrumental role” in helping raise $180 million to support the museum and its programs, the library said in announcing the appointment. The foundation serves as an advocate for the main library in Copley Square and 24 branches while also working to win government funding and philanthropic support.
“In partnership with Mayor Walsh, who has made the health and vibrancy of the BPL a priority, the library foundation will look to attract the kind of philanthropic and civic leadership that led to the founding of the BPL over a century and a half ago,” Bevilaqua said in the statement. The Boston native is a Boston University and Brandeis University graduate and has also worked for the New England Aquarium, Boston Medical Center and the Museum of Fine Arts.
Courtesy of the Boston Public Library Foundation 
