3:00

Welcome

3:05

Change agents: How the arts can rebuild communities
– Kemi Ilesanmi, Executive Director, The Laundromat Project

3:15

Chromatic visions: New models for radical inclusion
– Shaun Leonardo, Artist

3:25

Creative currency: How technology is democratizing art funding
– JiaJia Fei, Founder of the First Digital Agency for Art

3:35

The warrior: The future of art for social justice
– Catherine Gund, Founder & Director, Aubin Pictures

3:45

Theory in practice: Funding new social entreprises
– Jeremiah Olayinka Ojo, Founder & Director, lèkùn Wa
– Jonathan T. D. Neil, Associate Professor of Art Business & Arts Management; Founding Director, Center for Business and Management of the Arts, Claremont Graduate University

4:00

Social stewardship: Priorities for next-generation funders
– Sam Jacobs, Co-Director, JG3 Collaborative

4:10

Panel: Cultural Impact: Connecting the arts to sustainable investment
– Moderated by: Anna Raginskaya, Financial Advisor, the Blue Rider Group at Morgan Stanley
– Claude Grunitzky, Trustee, MASS MoCA; Founder, TRUE Africa
– Sandy S. Lee, Treasurer, Joan Mitchell Foundation
– K.C. Maurer, CFO & Treasurer, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

4:40

Keynote Interview
– Gabrielle Sulzberger, Co-Chair, Black Trustee Alliance, interviewed by Heidi Zuckerman, Founder, HiZ.art

4:55

Closing remarks
– Melissa Cowley Wolf, AFF Director, and Sean McManus, AFF Co-founder

Anna Raginskaya

Financial Advisor, Blue Rider Group.
– she / her / hers

Anna Raginskaya is a financial advisor with the Blue Rider Group, and focuses on the Blue Rider Group’s engagement with the art and impact investing communities and strategic planning for non-profit clients. She also advises on wealth management issues for Next Gen clients, including entrepreneurship and philanthropy.

Anna earned her BA in History of Art and Architecture from Harvard College and MBA from Harvard Business School. She is a co-chair of the Municipal Art Society Urbanists, a member of the Programming Committee of the National Academy of Design, and a partner of the VIA Art Fund.

The Blue Rider Group is committed to sustainable and impact investing, actively incorporating strategies that utilize environmental, social and governance criteria to make investment decisions, helping create positive change and drive investment returns. In addition to addressing their clients' financial needs, the Blue Rider Group facilitates introductions between philanthropists and non-profits, raises awareness about organizations and helps support cultural projects. They are passionate about art and the community of people involved in making, supporting, curating, and caring for it.

Catherine Gund

Founder & Director, Aubin Pictures.
– she / her / hers

Founder and Director of Aubin Pictures, Catherine Gund is an Emmy-nominated producer, director, writer, and activist. Her media work focuses on strategic and sustainable social transformation, racial justice, arts and culture, HIV/AIDS and reproductive justice, and the environment. Her films have screened around the world in festivals, theaters, museums, and schools; on PBS, the Discovery Channel, Sundance Channel, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. Her most recent films include: Aggie (Sundance, Doc Fortnight), a stunning journey with powerhouse art maverick Agnes “Aggie” Gund who sold a Roy Lichtenstein painting to end mass incarceration through her Art for Justice Fund fueling artists and activists working at the forefront of the movement, Dispatches From Cleveland (CIFF, MSPIFF), a five-chapter documentary that looks at the police murder of 12-year-old Tamir Rice and shows how people joined together to vote out the prosecutor who didn’t have their backs; and Chavela (Berlinale, Hot Docs, Ambulante) a documentary about the life of the iconic Latin American gender-ending diva, Chavela Vargas, America, Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity, What’s On Your Plate?, A Touch of Greatness, Motherland Afghanistan, Making Grace, On Hostile Ground, and Hallelujah! Ron Athey: A Story of Deliverance.

Gund currently serves on the boards of Art For Justice, Art Matters, Baldwin for the Arts, and is the Chair of The George Gund Foundation.. She co-founded the Third Wave Foundation which supports young women and transgender youth, and DIVA TV, an affinity group of ACT UP/NY. She was the founding director of BENT TV, the video workshop for LGBT youth. She was on the founding boards of Bard Early Colleges, Iris House, Working Films, Reality Dance Company, and The Sister Fund and has also served for MediaRights.org, The Robeson Fund of the Funding Exchange, The Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School, and the Astraea Foundation. An alumnus of Brown University and the Whitney Independent Study Program, she lives in NYC with her four children.

Claude Grunitzky

Trustee, MASS MoCA; Founder, TRUE Africa.
– He / Him / his

Claude Grunitzky is the founder of TRACE, a fast-growing media company which was successfully sold to a French investor group in 2010, and TRUE Africa, a media tech platform championing young African voices all over the world. In 2017, TRUE Africa was funded by Google’s Digital News Initiative. Grunitzky was raised between Lomé, Togo; Washington, DC; Paris; London and New York. Growing up, Grunitzky was exposed to many different cultures. These foreign interactions shaped his transcultural philosophy and informed the creative energy of his media ventures. A graduate of London University and MIT, where he received an MBA as a Sloan Fellow, Grunitzky is also a trustee and the Chairman of the Institutional Advancement Committee at MASS MoCA, a contemporary art museum in Massachusetts, and at Humanity in Action, a foundation that works internationally to build global leadership, defend democracy, protect minorities and improve human rights.

Gabrielle Sulzberger

Strategic Advisor, TwoSigma Impact.
– she / her / hers

Gabrielle Sulzberger is a seasoned financial executive with over 30 years of experience assisting public and privately held companies in consumer products, retail, financial services and life sciences. Gabrielle has helped companies globally navigate disruption and transformation, execution of major M&A transactions, and engagement with shareholder activists. She brings deep corporate governance experience through her work with corporate boards and is qualified to serve on audit committees as a financial expert.

Ms. Sulzberger currently serves as a strategic advisor to TwoSigma Impact, a New York based private equity fund. Previously, Ms. Sulzberger was a General Partner of Fontis Partners, a private equity fund based in Pasadena, California. Prior to joining Fontis Partners, Gabrielle served as CFO of several public and private companies, including Gluecode Software, a venture-backed open source software company which was sold to IBM, and Crown Services, a California based consolidation of commercial contractors.

Until August of 2017, Ms. Sulzberger served as Chairman of the board of Whole Foods, where for 13 years she had previously served as Chair of the company’s audit committee. She currently serves on the board of MasterCard, Brixmor Property Group, where she chairs the governance committee, and several private companies: Acorns, JustWorks, Cerevel Therapeutics, where she serves as Chair of the Audit Committee, and True Food Kitchen, where she is Chairman of the Board. Previously Ms. Sulzberger served on four other public company boards: Teva Pharmaceuticals, Stage Stores, IndyMac Bank, and Bright Horizons, and numerous private company boards.

Gabrielle is a Trustee of the Ford Foundation, and is chair of the governance committee. She also serves on the Boards of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sesame Street Workshop, TimesUp and Trinity Church Wall Street. She is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.

Ms. Sulzberger received her B.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Princeton University. She received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and J.D. from Harvard Law School and is a member of the Massachusetts Bar.

Heidi Zuckerman

Founder, HiZ.art.
– she / her / hers

Heidi Zuckerman, Founder of HiZ.art, is host of the Conversations About Art podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast platforms with new episodes available every Tuesday. She is the author of Conversations with Artists Volume I, II, and III (forthcoming). Zuckerman is also the former CEO and Director of the Aspen Art Museum for over 14 years.

Jeremiah Olayinka Ojo

Founder & Director, Ilèkùn Wa.
– He / Him / his

Jeremiah Olayinka Ojo is an artist, cultural entrepreneur, and community advocate with a passion for empowering and connecting African diasporic communities through visual arts, culture, and creative education.

As the Founder of Creative Milieu, LLC, a creative professional development enterprise, Jeremiah sources, trains and connects creatives through an integrated online-learning and staffing agency for the Creative Economy. Driven by his passion for African diaspora visual literacy, Jeremiah also founded Ilèkùn Wa (Our Doors), an art business advisory firm, facilitating & cultivating opportunities for visual artists of African descent to create, sustain and thrive.

Over the last decade, Jeremiah has become a sought after arts and culture management consultant, working internationally in artist professional development, gallery management, and art fair operations. His collaborative work with Black emerging contemporary artists, art institutions, corporations, and collectors has carved a pathway of cultural connectivity throughout the African Diaspora.

Jeremiah holds a Bachelors in Public Policy- Nonprofit Management from the Andrew Young School of Policy at Georgia State University and a Masters in Art Business from both Sotheby's Institute of Art & Claremont Graduate University. In 2018 was the inaugural Graduate Research Fellow at the National Council of Arts & Culture in Nigeria, Jeremiah has served on the board of numerous arts organizations including CHOP Art, The Circuit: Black Artist Union, Prizm Art Fair, AIR Serenbe and currently, he serves on the advisory board of Black Art Futures Fund.

JiaJia Fei

Founder, the First Digital Agency for Art.
– she / her / hers

JiaJia Fei is a digital strategist with over a decade of experience leading digital teams within cultural institutions, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and The Jewish Museum in New York City. As founder of the first digital agency for art, her new practice is centered around the mission of making art more accessible through technology.

JiaJia received her BA in History of Art from Bryn Mawr College, and has lectured on the impact of art and technology worldwide.

Jonathan T.D. Neil

Associate Professor of Art Business & Arts Management; Founding Director, Center for Business and Management of the Arts, Claremont Graduate University.
– He / Him / his

From 2013-2019 Dr. Neil was the Founding Director of Sotheby’s Institute of Art – Los Angeles. From 2011-2016 he was editor of the Held Essays on Visual Art for The Brooklyn Rail, and from 2008 until 2014 he was Executive Editor at The Drawing Center in New York City. Since 2009 he has served as both Associate Editor and Contributing Editor for ArtReview magazine. His writing can also be found in Modern Painters, The Art Newspaper, ICON, Hyperallergic and in numerous artist's catalogues and monographs. In 2005 he co-founded Boyd Level LLC, a private curatorial firm and consultancy that specializes in contemporary art. He holds a PhD in 20th-Century Art History from Columbia University and a B.Arch from Cornell University and is a member of the New York Chapter of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA).

KC Maurer

CFO & Treasurer, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.
– she / her / hers

Since 1998, KC Maurer has served as the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc., which makes grants to further the creation, exhibition, and documentation of contemporary visual arts. Ms. Maurer spent 2.5 years working in private industry before joining The Warhol Foundation. Prior to that, Ms. Maurer was a senior program analyst for the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA) in Washington, DC and Houston, Texas, where she worked on the Space Shuttle, Space Station, and US-Russian programs.

Ms. Maurer holds an A.B. in American Studies and History from Mount Holyoke College and an M.B.A. from American University's Kogod School of Business, where she received a two-year Graduate Fellowship and the Award for Outstanding Scholarship.

Ms. Maurer was the recipient of Mount Holyoke College's Alumnae Medal of Honor in 1999. Ms. Maurer serves on the Boards of Trustees of Mount Holyoke College and the Isaac H. Tuttle Fund. Ms. Maurer enjoys participating in walking and running events, and has shuffled through 3 New York City marathon and 24 half-marathon finish lines. Avocationally, she nurtures her inner theater geek by investing in Broadway shows, most recently the “ravishing” Once on This Island which won the 2018 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical.

Kemi Ilesanmi

Executive Director, The Laundromat Project.
– she / her / hers

Kemi Ilesanmi is Executive Director of The Laundromat Project, which advances artists and neighbors as change agents in their own communities. With 20yrs of experience in the cultural arena, she is inspired by the immense possibilities for joyful justice at the intersection of arts and community. Prior to joining The LP, she was Director of Grants and Services at Creative Capital Foundation where she supported the work of American artists making adventurous new work. From 1998-2004, she was visual arts curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. While there, she organized several exhibitions, including The Squared Circle: Boxing in Contemporary Art, and ran the visual arts residency program. In 2015, she was appointed by the Mayor of New York City to the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission and has served as Chair since 2020. She has been honored by the Metropolitan Museum and Project for Empty Space and serves on the boards of the Joan Mitchell Foundation and The Broad Room, as well as advisory boards for Brooklyn Public Library, Smith College Museum of Art, Black Arts Future Fund, Indigo Arts Alliance, and WNET All Arts. A graduate of Smith College, NYU, and Coro Leadership NY, she is also a Sterling Network Fellow.

Sam Jacobs

Co-Director, JG3 Collaborative.
– He / Him / his

Sam Jacobs is Co-Director of the JG3 Collaborative, a family philanthropy funding grassroots power-building and community organizing in occupied territories. Sam was politicized by the Occupy movement and the Movement for Black Lives and started organizing as a member leader of Resource Generation, a community of young people with wealth and class privilege who support grassroots social movements for justice and work to influence the philanthropic sector to do the same. A resource mobilizer through and through, he is especially proud of organizing and participating in giving circles to move money to struggles for Palestinian liberation, movements to fight corporate power, and gender justice organizing with a group of feminist dudes. He is the National Organizer for Donor Relations at Right To The City Alliance, serves on the boards of Grassroots International and Worth Rises, and is a member of Solidaire Network and the Leadership Circle at the Circle for Justice Innovations.

Sandy S. Lee

Treasurer, Joan Mitchell Foundation.
– she / her / hers

Sandy Lee is honored to advise on the growth, management, and disbursement of Joan Mitchell’s deeply generous gift to her fellow artists. Sandy has a background in both finance and the arts. Across disciplines, she is interested in themes of global exchange; community; and shifts in materials, processes, and technology.

Within finance, Sandy has collaborated extensively with institutional and private investors on alternative investments. She is a Managing Director at Kinneret Group, a private investment firm. Additionally, she co-founded Eight Seven Capital, worked at the D. E. Shaw group, and started her finance career at Morgan Stanley.

Sandy holds a BA from Yale University and an MA from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and Parsons School of Design. Trained in curatorial work, she has taught at Parsons and New York University.

Shaun Leonardo

Artist.
– He / Him / his

Shaun Leonardo’s multidisciplinary work negotiates societal expectations of manhood, namely definitions surrounding black and brown masculinities, along with its notions of achievement, collective identity, and experience of failure. His performance practice, anchored by his work in Assembly – a diversion program for court-involved youth at the Brooklyn-based, non-profit Recess, is participatory and invested in a process of embodiment. 

Leonardo is a Brooklyn-based artist from Queens, New York City. He received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, is a recipient of support from Creative Capital, Guggenheim Social Practice, Art for Justice and A Blade of Grass, and was recently profiled in the New York Times. His work has been featured at The Guggenheim Museum, the High Line, and New Museum, with a current  solo exhibition at MASS MoCA.