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Candid conversations with global art foundations
Over three afternoons, twenty-seven leading voices from across the arts will surface challenges, insights and innovations across nine conversations. Core questions will reflect on what responsibilities the field carries, what the real costs and considerations are by doing so, and what structures and opportunities need to be built to ensure the work continues. The goal is not conclusions. It is clarity about what matters most, and what the field is doing about it.
At the Stoa: New York opens on Tuesday with three hour-long sessions, open to the public, followed by a drinks reception.
Member-only workshops on Wednesday and Thursday mornings are followed by afternoon symposium sessions, open to the public.
Special events are available to Stoa members throughout the week.
Symposium daily schedule
15, September
2:00 pm Sessions 1 and 2 begin
4:20 pm Coffee break
4:45 pm Session 3 begins
6:00 pm Opening reception
16 and 17 September
10:00 am - 12:00 pm Stoa Workshop
2:00 pm Sessions 1 and 2 begin
4:20 pm Coffee break
4:45 pm Session 3 begins
Day 1: Tuesday 15
Rockefeller Center
When artists initiate non-profits
Foundations built by living artists are reshaping the field. Expansive by nature, artist-initiated organizations grow from shared interests advocacy, storytelling, environmental or economic justice, creating the spaces for artistic practice.
Kate Fowle, The Hearthland Foundation
Julie Mehretu, Denniston Hill
esperanza spalding, Prismid Sanctuary
Building community through art
Community is the word everyone uses. But what does it mean when the scale, power dynamics and geography are this different? This panel explores what genuine community-building requires, what it costs, and how art can be the primary tool for getting there.
Derek Fordjour, Contemporary Arts Memphis
Elise Herget, The Watermill Center
Jennifer Rice, Forman Arts Initiative
Legacy Russell, The Kitchen
Mission-aligned funding
When the mission becomes the primary metric, what counts as success? This panel examines what mission-aligned funding looks like in practice, how it shapes relationships with grantees, and what it takes to make it a long-term strategy.
Rocío Aranda-Alvarado, Ford Foundation
Christa Blatchford, Joan Mitchell Foundation
Karen Patterson,The Ruth Foundation for the Arts
Carolyn Ramo, A&L Berg Foundation
Day 2: Wednesday 16
Museum of Arts and Design
The next generation
A new generation of heirs and founders is inheriting not just wealth but expectation. This panel looks at how they are remaking cultural patronage on their own terms and asks what they choose to keep and what they choose to change.
Sarah Arison, Arison Arts Foundation
Lily Herzan, Lily Auchincloss Foundation
Jaimie Mayer, Middle Child Philanthropy
Value-driven investing
What happens when a foundation’s investments work against the very mission they exist to fund? From screening and divestment to impact investing, the panelists examine endowment as a tool for change and weigh the real trade-offs along the way.
Laura Campos, Nathan Cummings Foundation Jaimie Mayer, Middle Child Philanthropy
Eleanor Savage, Jerome Foundation
Anna Raginskaya, The Blue Rider Group
Governance and the founder transition
Three-quarters of foundations surveyed for The Stoa Report cite governance challenges. The hardest sit at the founder transition, when a vision must outlive its author and the structures built around their authority must function without them.
Phoebe Greenberg, PHI
Deana Haggag, Mellon Foundation
James-Allan Holmes, Bonfils-Stanton Foundation
Sarah Philp, Delfina Foundation
Day 3: Thursday 17
Guggenheim New York
Opening remarks: Emil J. Kang
Worldbuilding as foundation practice
Gaming and immersive practice are already shaping how the next generation relates to culture, giving rise to hybrid foundations built with commercial overlap in mind. This panel asks what worldbuilding offers a field still organised around the object.
Myriam Achard, PHI
Kelani Nicole, FORA Consortium
Marco Zappalorto, OGR Torino
Digital stewardship and the long archive
Digital is the most-flagged adaptation driver in the Stoa Report (42%) yet remains unevenly resourced. What does it mean to steward a collection or institutional memory across changing formats? What happens when digital becomes a strategy and not an afterthought?
Elizabeth Gorayeb, Wildenstein Plattner Institute
Patton Hindle, Knight Foundation
Kelani Nichole, FORA Consortium
Considering what comes next
Building something is one kind of work. Keeping its founding vision alive, not just intact, decades on is another. This closing conversation considers where that tension shows up and how a vision might have to adapt over time.
Simon Castets, Keith Haring Foundation
Andrew Goldstein, Dedalus Media Architects
Jesse Krimes, The Center for Art and Advocacy
Sandra Terdjman, KADIST/Afield
Become a Stoa member and get exclusive tools, insights, and a trusted global community. Learn more about membership here.
Workshops are 2-hour, closed-door sessions with professionals from outside and colleagues from within - a trusted space to build your knowledge, ask hard questions, and find practical solutions.
Each workshop runs from 10:00 am - 12:00pm, with check-in and coffee at 9:30am. Participants will receive a comprehensive set of Workshop Notes including presentation slides.
Pre-registration required. Seating limited. Lunch included.
16 September
Mission-aligned funding for grant makers
Participants will build on the Day 1 afternoon session and closely examine what mission alignment looks like when funding cycles, board pressures, and scale collide with conviction. Facilitated by Sarah Philp, Delfina Foundation, this session is built specifically for grant making organisations.
17 September
The financial future
A practical, technical workshop to explore core financial strategies including endowment structures, mission-aligned funding, recoverable grants, along with related legal and insurance considerations. Led by Anna Raginskaya and Maryanna Johnson, Blue Rider Group at Morgan Stanley, the group is joined by Stefanie Roth, Ewenstein & Roth, and Christopher Wise with Brown & Brown.
Workshops are available for Stoa members at no-charge. Pre-registration is required.
Learn more about our membership programme, benefits and how you can join. Just fill out this little form and we will be in touch.
Join now
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