Agnes Gund's Quotes

Agnes Gund (born 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 also Chair Emerita and 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 non-profit 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.

Agnes Gund's selected quotes:

Agnes Gund about Art:

Recycling old buildings to show art is very important.

Agnes Gund about Art:

Art shouldn't be prohibited in public schools when kids in private schools always get it.

Agnes Gund about Education:

I'm hoping someday that we'll be able to start a consortium with places like Carnegie Hall ...
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Agnes Gund about Help:

The arts capture our insecurities, quicken our instincts, guide us through threats. They help us know ...
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Agnes Gund about Work:

I own works by women artists, it is hard for me to see, literally to see, ...
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Agnes Gund (born 1938) is an American philanthropist and arts patron, collector of militant 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 afterward Chair Emerita and board believer of MoMA PS1. In 1977, in appreciation to New York City’s fiscal crisis that led to budget cuts that very nearly eliminated arts education in public schools, Gund founded Studio in a School, a non-profit management that engages professional artists as art instructors in public schools and community-based organizations to plus classes in drawing, printmaking, painting, collage, sculpture, and digital media, and to put on an act with classroom teachers, administrators, and families to incorporate visual art into their teacher communities.

All quotes from Agnes Gund sorted alphabetically:

Agnes Gund about Art:

Art shouldn't be prohibited in public schools when kids in private schools always get it.

Agnes Gund about Light:

However dark, however demanding the realities of existence are, artists provide the lift, the light, the ways to make it through. They help us find the joys and delights, the hopes we need for our days and hours. I am grateful for their gifts.

Agnes Gund about Day:

I have the same sense of discovery and exhilaration from objects of design and everyday use - I am inspired by the buildings in my city, by park greenery and dazzling store windows, by the jaunty strollers and umbrellas and billboards I walk past. Just strolling our streets, we encounter creativity every single day.

Agnes Gund about Art:

If it's taught well, art really is important to kids early on. It helps children develop language and allows them to see themselves in a way that isn't right or wrong, because if they draw an animal with five legs instead of four, nobody's criticizing them for it.

Agnes Gund about Education:

I'm hoping someday that we'll be able to start a consortium with places like Carnegie Hall to work on early childhood education. I really feel that's the most important place to put the arts.

Agnes Gund about Work:

I own works by women artists, it is hard for me to see, literally to see, how women and men differ in the quality of their work. Why are women artists less known and less admired?

Agnes Gund about Life:

I'm so lucky in my life, but I'm so unlucky in my abilities. I love art so much, but I'm unable to produce it. I can't even draw a dog that doesn't look like a horse.

Agnes Gund about Life:

In my own life, I share my home with works by artists like Elizabeth Murray, Martin Puryear, Jackie Windsor and so many others, whose creativity is clear and fresh and compelling, the works break through the usual, and they inspire creativity, they inspire responses and understanding.

Agnes Gund about Art:

Of course, museums and galleries and art spaces will continue to ground the art world. But certainly the public - as well as artists - also benefit when art is encountered in other everyday situations.

Agnes Gund about Art:

Most of the art I have is more on the beautiful side than the violent or disturbing side.

Agnes Gund about Education:

My education in the arts began at the Cleveland Museum of Art. As a Cleveland child, I visited the museum's halls and corridors, gallery spaces and shows, over and over. For me, the Cleveland Museum was a school of my very own - the place where my eyes opened, my tastes developed, my ideas about beauty and creativity grew.

Agnes Gund about Art:

Recycling old buildings to show art is very important.

Agnes Gund about Help:

The arts capture our insecurities, quicken our instincts, guide us through threats. They help us know ourselves. They help us know each other. They help us know better.

Agnes Gund about Life:

You don't have a balanced life if you don't have art.

Agnes Gund about Great:

The need we have for information is great, and we get it from many admirable sources. The need we have for understanding and acceptance is much greater. The arts are uniquely able to help us meet the greater needs.