Gordon Sondland Talks Philanthropic Efforts At The Portland Business Journal Power Breakfast

Hotelier Gordon Sondland on Portland art and how his parents fled Nazi Germany (Video)

By Jon Bell, Portland Business Journal, March 17, 2016

On the $1 million endowment that he and his wife, Katie Durant, made to the Portland Art Museum in 2008 to provide free admission to the Portland Art Museum for kids: " We noticed that they had to charge for kids who were under 18 years old, so a family of four or six going to the museum, you start adding up the prices for admission and that could range into a couple hundred dollars by the time you bring six people through the door.

"A lot of people would look at that choice and say, do I want to spend $200 to go to the art museum or do I want to go to a great movie or to go to a great concert or whatever. Katy and I both did not want that to have to be the choice ... So we decided to endow the museum for kids so they can have perpetual admission for free. You see school buses lined up in front of the museum all the time because they can go for free. That's why we did it."