Combatting Mass Incarceration

Agnes “Aggie” Gund is known around the world for her philanthropy and her art collection. In June, the president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art stunned the art world when she sold “Masterpiece,” a 1962 painting by Roy Lichtenstein she owned for decades. As the New York Times reported at the time, the sale “plac[ed] it among the 15 highest known prices ever paid for an artwork.”

 

But Gund stunned the social-justice world when she announced that $100 million of the $150 million proceeds would be used to start the Art for Justice Fund. Gund’s goal is to end mass incarceration, a decision driven as much by her grandchildren as by Ava DuVernay’s powerful documentary “13TH.”

Listen to the podcast to hear Gund talk about how a trip to Mississippi opened her eyes even more to disparities between blacks and whites, how a discussion about the Holocaust while visiting Germany forced her to confront her lack of knowledge of lynchings in the United States, and how she got some of the most prominent names in the arts, finance and philanthropy, names such as Tisch and Joyner, Walton and Chenault, to sign on to the Art for Justice Fund.

Read the full article on combatting mass incarceration by Jonathan Capehart at Washington Post.