AGGIE at Sundance  

Philanthropist, art collector and social justice advocate Agnes Gund ’60 is the subject of a feature documentary.

Philanthropist, art collector and social justice advocate Agnes Gund ’60 is the subject of a feature documentary—directed by her own Emmy-nominated daughter—that premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Catherine Gund’s AGGIE focuses on Gund’s extraordinary life, exploring the power of art to transform consciousness and inspire social change. The film opens with Gund selling Roy Lichtenstein’s “Masterpiece” for $165 million and using the proceeds from one of the highest grossing artworks ever sold to start the Art for Justice Fund and fuel a monumental effort to reform the American criminal justice system and end mass incarceration.

Following its Jan. 24 premiere in Park City, AGGIE was screened in New York at the Museum of Modern Art’s prestigious Doc Fortnight. Gund is the president emerita of MoMA, chair of its International Council and chair of MoMA PS1. She is also the founder of Studio in a School, a nonprofit organization that engages professional artists as art instructors in public schools and community organizations.

In October, Gund designated a gift of $1 million to endow The Agnes Gund ’60 Dialogue Project at Connecticut College to build a generation of leaders capable of respecting and expressing a broad range of divergent ideas and opinions. Through workshops, interactive classes, cultural immersion experiences, community service projects and events on and off campus, students will build the capacity to engage in courageous conversations that speak across political, social, racial and socioeconomic differences.

“It is wonderful to see Connecticut College taking the lead in educating students for a more just society,” Gund said when the gift was announced.

“I look forward to the flourishing of this project and to witnessing the changes brought by the capable young leaders who will emerge from it.”