The Foundation Founder: Charlotte Wagner
“Philanthropy has a role to play by funding systems-change. We must address systematic injustice to truly recover.”
5 Questions with Charlotte Wagner
Founder and CEO of Wagner Foundation & Collector
Boston, MA
Charlotte Wagner is the Founder and CEO of Wagner Foundation, a Boston-based foundation. Charlotte serves on the Boards of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, VIA Art Fund, and Partners In Health. She also serves on the Tate North American Acquisitions Committee.
Wagner Foundation’s mission is to build just and robust community throughout the world. Wagner is committed to honoring the potential in all people, the foundation looks to support individuals in building the skills necessary to be agents of change in their own lives and active members of their communities. Wagner Foundation invests in the following focus areas: improving health equity, increasing economic mobility, expanding institutional fairness, and striving for cultural transformation. The foundation works across these disciplines to develop systematic solutions to the word’s most pressing problems.
1. How is the Wagner Foundation responding?
Our initial focus has been on supporting first responders and those hardest hit by the pandemic, including those who have lost their livelihoods or are facing food insecurity.
Our historic focus on health equity, and our deep relationship with grantees such as Partners In Health (PIH), as well as other global health organizations, have allowed us to get money into the field quickly and effectively. In Massachusetts, PIH is implementing contact tracing programs, which we hope will become a national model.
We are also focused on the health of arts organizations. Many have been forced to make significant cuts, staff reductions and furloughs. Because of these pressures, its been important to communicate to our partners that we will continue to stand by them in this crisis. Additionally, we have supported relief funds that provide direct support for artists who have been impacted by the crisis.
2. From your vantage point, should new fundraising strategies be developed going forward?
The effects of this pandemic will be with us for years. As we begin to plan beyond the immediate crisis, investments in capacity and facilities must address the factors which have excluded populations from essential services in the first place. The communities hardest hit by COVID-19 were already underserved and have been failed by existing systems in so many ways. Philanthropy has a role to play by funding systems-change. We must address systematic injustice to truly recover.
3. Arts Funders Forum research has shown that people want more collaboration, partnerships, and new funding vehicles in the arts. Wagner’s partnerships are an example of this. How might this moment accelerate that shift?
Our focus on just and robust community means that we see arts support in a collaborative way, which is predicated on the idea that the arts are intrinsically valuable and essential. Local arts organizations occupy an important role in communities. Unfortunately, they are often under-appreciated and underfunded, and this pandemic is revealing the frailties in our arts ecosystem.
Our partnership with VIA Art Fund supports geographically diverse, small visual arts organizations across the country. The VIA/Wagner Incubator Grant Fund is about providing both multi-year support and flexibility. This balance is aimed at strengthening what makes art organizations distinct, which is a reflection of differing communities, histories, and places. Because they are often overlooked, we want to focus on arts organizations in the middle of the country to emphasize this richness. Research shows that cultural organizations contribute to the health and prosperity of communities by strengthening social and economic bonds within them. This means that benefits are not always immediately obvious but, at the same time, art is the glue that holds everything together.
4. You are a collector of “artists who are socially concerned”. Do you think this crisis will create more of an opening for socially conscious art, and will the market will champion that shift?
I don’t think it is possible to be genuinely engaged with larger issues and ignore what individuals are facing. This crisis laid bare societal inequities in the starkly different health outcomes depending on where you live. Surviving a health crisis shouldn’t depend on your zip code. Many of us are feeling the weight of these inequities, and artists are no different. As artists come to terms with this pandemic, I am sure they will use their immense talents to show us ways forward. I agree with Glenn Ligon who said, “Art points to things. It’s a way of giving people not the standard way of looking at the world.”
I am also delighted that institutions are more focused on fair representation, which includes historic and contemporary collections. I support shows and curators who are working toward the goal of fair representation in the arts and will continue to do so.
As much as I can, I try and stay away from the fashionable aspects of collecting. The market will do what it needs to, and I will remain committed to collecting the artists I admire.
5. How do you think this crisis might change the landscape of cultural patronage, and society’s view of arts as a whole?
I believe COVID-19 has brought the intersection of many different aspects of society into focus from health, to housing, to economic opportunity, to access to culture and wellbeing. You cannot look at these things in isolation as they are all interdependent and a part of a larger system.
The effects of COVID-19 on our society reminds us that we must do more to work together and approach injustice from a holistic lens. Art has the power to bring people together, give voice to our shared interests, and strengthen bonds. It also has the power to heal and reimagine what our world can look like after COVID-19.
As we enter into the recovery phase of the crisis and look towards rebuilding and reimagining, artists and art organizations will play a critical role in bringing communities back together and contributing to creative solutions.
A 2017 study by Mark Stern and Susan Seifert at the University of Pennsylvania, showed a link between well-being and access to culture. The need for long-term systemic support for both health systems and cultural institutions is not yet well understood by the donor community, but this is a good place to start as we look to rebuild better.
Charlotte Wagner is the Founder and CEO of Wagner Foundation, a Boston-based foundation. Charlotte serves on the Boards of the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, VIA Art Fund, and Partners In Health. She also serves on the Tate North American Acquisitions Committee.