Philanthropist Agnes Gund and daughter Catherine Gund, Founder & Director of Aubin Pictures, discuss the inspiration and impact of the Art for Justice Fund with Maria Hinojosa, Futuro Media Group Founder. 

Maria Hinojosa:  It's great to be here on stage with Agnes Gund and Cat Gund. When you looked at that beautiful Lichtenstein in your dining room and said, "I love this painting, but I'm going to-" and you've given many away. But this one there was a particular reason, and it was to create the Art for Justice Fund. Just tell us what that was like, the process, of understanding that you were going to let go of this piece of art that you loved and adored.  But you were doing it for a very concrete reason.

Agnus Gund: Well I had seen Ava DuVernay, "13th", the night before or a couple of nights before that. And I thought it was so pivotal to me. I hadn't seen anything like that before. And I thought about giving it away somewhat before that, and then I thought this would be the best way to do it.

Maria Hinojosa: So Cat, you are Aggie's daughter, and so can you make the through line, because one of the things you said about your mom, which I love,  is that you said, "The thing about Aggie is that she is free of conventions. And that's why she ends up doing something so unconventional.

Cat Gund: I should just start by saying that, you know in our house, art is the first and last thing. But for us, it's like the beginning and the end- art was here before and it will be here when mass incarceration is over. And it will be here when philanthropy puts itself out of a job. Because philanthropy is reliant on inequality, then we eradicate inequality, we will not have to have the philanthropy that we see and understand now. And that's part of what I appreciate so much about what Aggie did with Art for Justice.

Read the full article about Art for Justice from Ford Foundation.