About AEFI
Activities that now comprise AEFI’s principal research component—the National Study of Artist-Endowed Foundations—were initiated in 2007 with the support of a donor consortium led by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and including major arts funders such as the Ford Foundation and Getty Foundation. These donors realized the potential of this young field to substantially expand the nation’s cultural philanthropy resources. They also recognized the field’s growing role in artistic heritage stewardship. Responding to numerous requests for information from persons considering or charged with foundation creation, and understanding the complexity of the task, they determined that a project to document and disseminate effective practices was in order.
As it has been since the effort’s inception, AEFI’s mission is to help the next generation of artist-endowed foundations make the most of their founders’ generosity in service to a charitable purpose. It aims to strengthen this next generation, and optimize its charitable capacity, by filling the significant information gap facing individuals involved in creating, leading, governing and advising foundations. By shortening the steep learning curve inherent in these distinctively endowed entities, AEFI helps ensure that charitable resources can be spent on charitable purposes, not costly lessons. To this end, AEFI conducts ongoing programs to develop and share knowledge with key audiences. These programs and their participants include:
Research and Publications—National Study of Artist-Endowed Foundations, regular Study Report Supplements and Updates, briefing papers on critical issues, and targeted publications, such as A Reading Guide to the Study Report for Artists and Their Family Members. Artists, artists’ families, associates and advisors, foundation leaders, policymakers, journalists, scholars, educators and students use these resources.
Knowledge Sharing Events—Workshops for foundation creators, including artists and their spouses/partners, and artists’ surviving spouses and heirs; briefing sessions for foundation advisors, including attorneys, art dealers, investment advisors, and accountants, hosted by local and national professional associations; and public panel discussions for members of the art, museum, philanthropy, education and media fields, and for interested public audiences, hosted by leading cultural institutions, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, Chicago, and the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, among others.
Leadership Programs—Seminar on Strategy for Artist-Endowed Foundation Leaders, assisting the professional development of new foundation leaders, and Artist-Endowed Foundation Leadership Forum, collaborating with foundation leaders, field experts, and thought leaders to examine and discuss critical issues and important innovations in policy and practice that are influencing the field.
ARTIST-ENDOWED FOUNDATIONS INITIATIVE/AEFI ADVISORS
Honorary Chair:
Leah Levy, Executive Director, The Jay DeFeo Foundatiion
Advisors:
Alberta Arthurs, Former Director of Arts and Humanities, Rockefeller Foundation
Michael Conforti, Director Emeritus, The Clark Art Institute
Jennifer Dowley, Former President, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation
Linda Earle, Professor of Practice in Fine Arts Management, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University
Michelle Elligott, Chief of Archives, Library and Research Collections, The Museum of Modern Art
Elizabeth Glassman, President Emerita, Terra Foundation for American Art
Jill Horwitz, Founding Faculty Director, Program on Philanthropy and Nonprofits, UCLA School of Law
Mari Carmen Ramirez, Wortham Curator for Latin American Art and Founding Director, International Center for the Arts of the Americas, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Franklin Sirmans, Director, Pérez Art Museum Miami
Stephen K. Urice, Professor of Law, University of Miami School of Law
Advisors Emeriti:
Charles C. Bergman*, Former Chairman and CEO, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation
Richard Calvocoressi, Former Director, Henry Moore Foundation
James T. Demetrion*, Former Director Emeritus, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution
Ruth E. Fine, Chair, Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, Former Curator of Special Projects in Modern Art, National Gallery of Art
Marion R. Fremont-Smith*, Former Senior Research Fellow, Hauser Institute for Civil Society, Harvard University
Marc-André Renold, Director, Art-Law Centre, University of Geneva, CH
Aida Rodriguez, Professor Emeritus, Nonprofit Management, Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, New School
Lowery Stokes Sims, Curator Emerita, Museum of Arts and Design
James Allen Smith, Former Vice President and Director of Research and Education, Rockefeller Archives Center
*deceased