Agnes GUND
Art for Justice Fund, Founded in 2017
decades ago, when agnes gundw as just beginning to explore charitable giving, her mentor, the late philanthropist Irene Diamond, provided seminal advice. “She told me: ‘Be generous during your lifetime,’ ” rather than creating an endowment, says Gund, who is matter-of-fact and humble, despite her outsize role supporting dozens of organizations, including the ACLU; the Barnes Foundation, where she is a trustee emerita; the Cleveland Museum of Art, on whose board she currently sits; the Museum of Modern Art, where she is president emerita and life trustee; and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
Since 2017, the New York City doyenne of philanthropy has spent more than $100 million fighting mass incarceration with her Art for Justice Fund, which aims to safely reduce the prison population and, like many of her efforts, incorporates art and artists in the solution.
In 1977, when the city’s dire financial situation led to art classes being slashed at public schools, Gund rallied her art-world friends to help create Studio in a School, bringing instruction and working artists directly into classrooms. Studio now encompasses eight US cities, managed by two organizations—Studio in a School NYC and the Studio Institute—with a combined operating budget of $7 million. Celebrated contemporary artists, such as Glenn Ligon and Sarah Sze, teach classes, and the program also offers coveted training for public school art teachers.
“All of this is based upon Agnes’s vision of equity and inclusion and serving the communities that need us most,” says Alison Scott-Williams, president of Studio in a School NYC.
At 83 years old, Gund remains sharply focused on making her philanthropic dollars stretch, often awarding multiyear grants to ease the burden on nonprofits and providing direct support rather than funneling money through other foundations, which then fund grantees and sometimes take administrative fees. “This allows me to make immediate impact and pivot more quickly if needed,” she says.
That sense of urgency has propelled Gund, a white heiress to a banking and real-estate fortune, to become a leader in the fight for criminal-justice reform. After seeing A va Du Verna y’ s documentary
13th, which draws a direct line from slavery to mass incarceration, Gund began reading about the issue and seeking out Bryan Stevenson, Michelle Alexander and other experts. Her horror prompted her to sell one of her favorite paintings, Roy Lichtenstein’s 1962 Master
piece, and use $100 million from the proceeds to start the Art for Justice Fund.
In the four years since its inception, the fund has dispersed $92 million to 287 nonprofits, while also raising nearly $25 million from over 100 individual donors, including art collectors, artists and incarcerated people. Among the beneficiaries is A New Way of Life, an organization providing housing and support for formerly incarcerated women. Gund also continues to personally donate to nonprofits that she “loves and adores” in the field, such as Puppies Behind Bars, which trains prison inmates to raise service dogs for wounded war veterans and first responders.
Not one to rest, Gund has visited prison and detention centers and is now actively involved in helping female inmates who have suffered severe abuse at New York’s Rikers Island jail. She is also turning her attention to climate change, citing artist Maya Lin’s installation Ghost Forest in Madison Square Park as inspiration. Harnessing art as a force for good remains central to her approach.
“Agnes is an extraordinary philanthropist. She has an incredible sense of timing,” says Helena Huang, project director of Art for Justice. “She is wonderfully impatient. She’s always saying, ‘Why can’t we do more?’ ”
In four years, Art for Justice has dispersed $92 million to 287 nonprofits working against mass incarceration.