Paul R. Jones, who donated millions of dollars worth of works by African-American artists to universities in Delaware and Alabama, died Tuesday at age 81 following a brief illness, the Associated Press reports.

A civil-rights activist and former Peace Corps official in Thailand, Mr. Jones began buying pieces in the 1960s with a goal of increasing the presence of black artists in U.S. galleries. He made major gifts to the University of Delaware in 1993 and to the University of Alabama in 2008, 59 years after that institution’s law school rejected him because of his race, according to the article.

In other arts news, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is starting what its music director termed a “fantasy camp” for amateur musicians, The Baltimore Sun reports. The one-week BSO Academy, financed by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and scheduled for June, will include master classes with symphony musicians and a public performance alongside the professional orchestra.

Also, a Boston Globe column looks at financial management at the city’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which suffered relatively modest losses in the market crash.

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