About the Benefactor
Elizabeth A. Sackler is a public historian, social activist, and American Indian advocate. Dr. Sackler is the CEO and President of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, founder and president of the American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation, and sits on the National Advisory Board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., and on the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Museum, New York City.
Dr. Sackler lectures at universities and colleges in Manhattan, most recently at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Stern School of Business at New York University. As a panelist for ArtTable at the National Museum of the American Indian, NYC, “Understanding the Current Art and Cultural Property Debate and its Impact on the Art World” and at the Vera List Center for Arts and Politics, “Cultural Genocide and Hegemony: Keys to Political, Economic, Religious, and Cultural Domination,” Dr. Sackler addressed historic and current cultural genocide and the legal, ethical, and moral debates raging in the museum and art-market worlds. She has authored numerous articles for scholarly journals and national magazines; her paper “Calling for a Code of Ethics in the Indian Art Market” is in the recently published anthology Ethics and the Visual Arts (Eds. Levin/King, New York: Allworth Press, 2006). She is a regular guest lecturer at the New York University Gallatin School of Individualized Study Graduate Seminar Program.
As President of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, Dr. Sackler was responsible for giving Judy Chicago’s iconic feminist masterpiece, The Dinner Party, to the Brooklyn Museum in 2002, and for its permanent installation venue in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum, opening March 23, 2007. Through this endeavor, Dr. Sackler has realized her vision to highlight women’s contributions in all fields throughout history, bring feminist art to New York’s major cultural institution, and create a fertile space for feminists, artists, thinkers, and writers to congregate and share ideas and ideals.
Dr. Sackler was honored in 1999 by the Yurok Tribal Council, received the Brooklyn Museum Community Committee Women in the Arts Award in 2002, was one of Women’s eNews “21 leaders of the 21st Century” in 2003, was the recipient of the President’s Award from the Women’s Caucus for Art in 2004, was named “Native American of the Year” by Drums Along the Hudson in 2005, and in April 2006 received ArtTable’s prestigious 2006 Distinguished Service to the Visual Arts.