The Baltimore Museum of Art has received a $3.5 million donation to support the position of chief curator, one of the largest endowment gifts the museum has seen since its founding in 1914.

The role will be renamed after the donors, the Baltimore-based philanthropists Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown. It is held by Asma Naeem, a specialist in American art and contemporary Islamic art who was appointed last August.

“We see this endowment for chief curator as being a very significant statement, especially naming a person of color,” Mr. Brown, the founder and chief executive of Brown Capital Management, said. “That really appealed to us.”

Before her appointment at the Baltimore Museum of Art, Ms. Naeem was the curator of prints, drawings and media arts at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. She has taught art history at the University of Maryland and at the Catholic University of America.