Dolo Brooking, who served as director of education from 1972 to 1981 and recently retired from arts administration at the University of California, Dominguez Hills, has given a monetary gift of an undisclosed amount to the museum to continue the legacy of a cross-disciplinary project called “Musing in Museums” that she created at the Spencer in the late 1970s.

Brooking, of Santa Monica, Calif., was in Lawrence Thursday night for a reception at the museum to celebrate the announcement of her gift.

Funded by a $90,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, “Musing in Museums” began in March 1978, shortly after the opening of the Spencer building.

The two-year program, intended to better acquaint adults with the museum’s collection, consisted of nine, two-month sessions, each with a theme drawn from the Muses of Ancient Greece.