NEW YORK, NY.- Public Art Fund announced the appointment of Ai Weiwei, Ellen Celli, Andrea Krantz, and Ruthard C. Murphy to its Board of Directors. They join an international group of philanthropists and artists who support the organization’s mission to bring powerful, free contemporary art to broad audiences across New York City and beyond. These appointments are emblematic of Public Art Fund’s strategic growth over the past ten years, under the tenure of Director & Chief Curator Nicholas Baume, which has also seen the expansion of the organization’s budget and staff to support its ambitious programming.
“We are thrilled to welcome these four visionaries to our board leadership, each of whom has been a friend and supporter of Public Art Fund for a number of years,” says Nicholas Baume, Public Art Fund Director & Chief Curator. “As we think about the future of art in public space, it is essential that our Board leadership reflect all the aspects of our mission, and we’re thrilled that these four thoughtful, passionate, and engaged members of our community will work with us to further our vision to present boundary-breaking art experiences to all, for free.”
AI WEIWEI is one of the leading cultural figures of his generation. He is renowned for artworks and gestures that assert pointed aesthetic statements that resonate with timely phenomena across today’s geopolitical world. From architecture to installations, social media to documentaries, Ai uses a wide range of mediums as expressions of new ways for his audiences to examine society and its values. In 2017, Public Art Fund presented Ai’s timely citywide exhibition Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, a 300+ work show developed in response to the global migration crisis that transformed spaces across New York City’s five boroughs, including the Washington Square Arch and the Unisphere.
ELLEN CELLI is a goldsmith and jewelry designer based in New York City. She is a co-chair of the Whitney Museum of American Art's Education committee and previously served on the Boards of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the Children's Museum of Manhattan.
ANDREA KRANTZ is a New York City-based philanthropist and art collector. She serves on the Board of the Riverside Park Conservancy.
RUTHARD C. MURPHY is a Managing Director at Branly Point Capital Advisors, a specialist project finance advisor that serves institutional investors and focuses on the power, energy and infrastructure sectors in sub-Saharan Africa. He serves on the Acquisition Committee of the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Advisory Council on Cultural Engagement at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the executive committee for the Friends of Education at The Museum of Modern Art.
