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Agnes Gund (born August 13, 1938) is an American philanthropist and arts patron, collector of modern and contemporary art, and arts education and social justice advocate. She is President Emerita and Life Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Chairman of its International Council. She is a board member of MoMA PS1. In 1977, in response to New York City's fiscal crisis that led to budget cuts that virtually eliminated arts education in public schools, Gund founded Studio in a School, a nonprofit organization that engages professional artists as art instructors in public schools and community-based organizations to lead classes in drawing, printmaking, painting, collage, sculpture, and digital media, and to work with classroom teachers, administrators, and families to incorporate visual art into their school communities.
A civic leader and staunch supporter of education, women's issues and environmental concerns, among other causes, Gund is the former chair of the Mayor's Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission of New York City, a former member of the New York State Council on the Arts, and has served on the boards of organizations such as the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Barnes Foundation, Chess in the Schools, the Frick Collection, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Fund for Public Schools, the J. Paul Getty Trust, and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.
In 1997, Gund received the National Medal of Arts from Bill Clinton, the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the U.S. government. In 1998, Gund received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In 2011, Gund was nominated by President Barack Obama as a member of the board of trustees of the Arts council."President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts," The White House news release, December 22, 2010, [1] In 2016, she was elected Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Arts."Royal Academy of Arts Announces Election of New Royal Academician, Honorary Royal Academicians and Honorary Fellows," Royal Academy of Arts press release, April 14, 2016, [2] In 2018, she was awarded the J. Paul Getty Medal."J. Paul Getty Trust Announces J. Paul Getty Medal to go to Thelma Golden, Agnes Gund and Richard Serra," J. Paul Getty Trust press release, March 26, 2018, [3]
On February 14, 2020, Gund was presented with the first-ever “Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership Award” in honor of Justice Ginsburg’s exemplary career and life. In October 2022, Gund received the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal, the highest honor given by Harvard University in the field of African and African American studies.
In May 2025, Gund was featured in The New Yorker’s ‘Power Houses: Inside the Living Rooms of Notable New Yorkers’.
In 2016, Studio in a School launched the Studio Institute under the leadership of long-time Studio President Thomas Cahill. The goal of the Studio Institute is to expand the organization's mission and impact on the field through research, documentation, and dissemination, and to share its programs with other cities around the country. By 2018, the Studio Institute had provided expanded programming in five cities: Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, Cleveland, and Memphis.
In 2017, Studio in a School received the National Arts Award for Arts Education from Americans for the Arts.
Her collection consists of paintings, sculptures, photographs, prints, and furniture, with an exceptionally rich compilation of drawings. She has donated hundreds of works to MoMA, numerous works to the Cleveland Museum of Art, and has given or loaned various pieces to museums around the country. Essentially all of her most valuable works that have not already been gifted are promised gifts to institutions.Ruhling, Art School Confidential: Agnes Gund Profile, 58.
Gund was married to Albrecht "Brec" Saalfield, an heir to the Saalfield Publishing Company of Akron, Ohio. They had four children: David, Catherine Gund, Jessica and Anna. Gund later married attorney, Hunter College philosophy instructor and Columbia University and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law instructor Daniel Shapiro.
Gund resides in New York City.
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