Director’s Council

The Director’s Council is a premier patron group designed to engage and educate art enthusiasts. Through a variety of events hosted by Alice Pratt Brown Director Adam D. Weinberg, Council members have the opportunity to gain an inside look at the Museum, its programs, and its plans for the future. Members enjoy private collection tours, dinners, and receptions hosted by notable members of the art community. Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator Chrissie Iles serves as the Director’s Council liaison and shares with the group her deep knowledge of contemporary American art and artists. A Whitney curator since 1997, Iles was the co-curator of the 2006 and 2004 Biennials.

Participation begins with an annual gift of $10,000.

For further information please email patron_groups@whitney.org or call (212) 671-5402.

• A private tour of the conserved SoHo home and studio of Donald Judd, one of Minimalism’s most important practitioners and a pioneer of SoHo as an artist’s enclave in the 1960s. The event, hosted by the Judd Foundation, was highlighted by a discussion with Judd’s children, Rainer and Flavin, on the artist’s influential life and work.

• A private collection visit at the home of “Baby Jane” Holzer offered a rare look at the life and art collection of Warhol’s first superstar. Holzer’s extensive collection includes numerous works by Warhol as well as Keith Haring, Richard Prince, Jim Hodges, Fischli and Weiss, Ed Ruscha, Sylvie Fleury, Karen Kilimnik, Richard Artschwager, Rudolf Stingel, and others.

• An appropriation art panel discussion at Deitch Projects explored the subject of appropriation from multiple perspectives – that of the critic, the dealer, the art historian, and the artist. The panel, moderated by Chrissie Iles, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator, included art historian Johanna Burton, Whitney Curator Scott Rothkopf, 2010 Whitney Biennial artist Sharon Hayes, and New York Magazine senior art critic Jerry Saltz

• A Chelsea gallery walk led by 2010 Biennial artist Kate Gilmore offered Director’s Council members a look at contemporary art through the artist’s eyes. The tour, with additional observations by Whitney Biennial 2010 co-curator Gary Carrion-Murayari, was preceded by a brunch and private collection visit.

• A day of art in Greenwich, CT with Chrissie Iles, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator, included a private viewing of a highly regarded solo exhibition by 2006 Biennial artist Urs Fischer at the Brant Foundation Art Study Center followed by lunch and several private collection visits.