BOSTON MFA ASKS PUBLIC TO HELP BUY CHIHULY SCULPTURE

After opening the crowd-pleasing Dale Chihuly exhibition in April, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts has found a way visitors can return the favor. The museum has placed a donation box next to Chihuly’s Lime Green Icicle Tower in hopes of raising $1 million to buy the 42-foot-tall sculpture and give it a permanent home at the museum, the Boston Globe reports. Contributors can also give online and even via text, by sending the word TOWER to 50555. The museum's trustees have promised to match the public’s donations.

The exhibition, “Chihuly: Through the Looking Glass,” Apr. 10-Aug. 7, 2011, has been such a runaway success -- it’s expected to be at least the fifth most popular exhibition in the museum’s history -- that organizers plan to email everyone who’s visited the show to spread news of the campaign.

“Pretty much from day one, people almost invariably ask, ‘Does this stay, is it permanent, can we keep it here?’’’ senior curator Gerald Ward told the paper. “It’s met with universal acceptance and people are anxious to have it stay.’’

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