The
Black Arts
Council
Benefit
A Night Out
with Friends
Honoring
Pamela J. Joyner
and Alfred J. Giuffrida
Simone Leigh
Thursday, April 3, 2025
6:30 p.m. Cocktails
8:00 p.m. Dinner
Performance by Phony Ppl
DJ Sets by Aku and Niks • Gale Scott
Host Committee
Sarah Arison and Thomas Wilhelm
Jessica and Kelvin Beachum • Black Fashion Fair
Brandon Blackwood • Anita Blanchard and Martin Nesbitt
Mark Bradford • Denise and Gary Gardner
Amy Goldrich and Nick Kline • Agnes Gund
Alvin Hall and Kendall Messick • Thelma and AC Hudgins
Glenn Ligon • Larry Ossei-Mensah
Susan and David Rockefeller • Shamina Sneed
Mickalene Thomas • Reginald Van Lee
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street, New York
Please use the David and Peggy Rockefeller
Building entrance.
Questions? Contact us at
[email protected].
Event Supporters
- Sarah Arison and Thomas Wilhelm
- Kathy and Richard Fuld
- Agnes Gund
- Pamela J. Joyner and Alfred J. Giuffrida
- Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis
- Katherine Farley and Jerry Speyer
- J. Paul Getty Trust
- Thelma and AC Hudgins
- Duane L. Hughes, UBS Americas
- Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder
- Melissa Van Putten-Henderson,
- UBS Americas
- Susan and David Rockefeller
- Jamie and Robert Soros
- Sandra and Tony Tamer
- Taylor and Wemimo Abbey
- Brandon Blackwood New York
- Anita Blanchard and Martin Nesbitt
- Amy Goldrich
- Alvin D. Hall and Kendall Messick
- Hauser & Wirth
- Reginald Van Lee
- Dian Woodner
- Black Fashion Fair
- Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
- Lonti Ebers and Bruce Flatt
- Wendy Fisher and Dennis Goodman
- Paul Henkel
- Marlene Hess and James D. Zirin
- Noel E.D. Kirnon
- Kelli Lane
- Lewis Long
- Bernard I. Lumpkin and Carmine D. Boccuzzi
- Marquita Pool-Eckert
- Michael Rosenfeld Gallery
- Richard Roth
- Scott & Co
- Barbara Karp Shuster
- Bonita and Kevin Stewart
- Richard Torres and Kerrie McDevitt
- Jamie L. Watson
- Robin and Steve Welch
- Michelle Morris Weston
- Ryan Zurrer
- Jane Aiello
- amika
- Cassie Arison and Niv Alexander
- Karole Dill Barkley and Eric J. Barkley
- Allison K. Berg
- Cordia Beverley
- Daniel L. Black
- Marianne Boesky Gallery
- Terri Bowles
- Horace Brockington
- Sherry B. Bronfman
- Diana Cagle
- Viljon Caka
- Sarah R. Cannon
- Judy Chambers
- Kevin G. Chavers and
- Ginger McKnight-Chavers
- Camille Clark
- Nedra Collins
- The CORE: Club Fifth Avenue
- John Drakulich and Andy Hoen
- Waldo C. Falkener Jr.
- Janelle Faulk
- Seendy Fouron
- James Gara
- Patricia Gerrick
- Marian Goodman Gallery
- Joyce K. Haupt
- Barbara T. Hoffman Esq.
- Aaron Holliday III
- Michelle Johnson
- Bridgett Lindsey
- Angela D. McCray
- Gay McDougall
- Ruthard C. Murphy
- Tade Olulade
- Valerie Owolo
- Stinson Parks III
- Sarah Perkins
- Kimberly Pirtle, Sotheby's
- Diane Rodriguez
- Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn
- Isabelle Sajous
- Christine Sanders
- Shamina D. Sneed
- Raquel Thompson
- John David Treadwell
- Nicola Vassell Gallery
- White Cube
- Allison Grant Williams
- Sean Williams
- Jamila Justine Willis and Brian Oduor
The Black Arts Council
The Black Arts Council is a community of patrons, philanthropists, collectors, and art enthusiasts dedicated to the elevated visibility, access, and appreciation for art and artists of the African diaspora at The Museum of Modern Art. Founded in 1993 by Dr. Akosua Barthwell Evans, Agnes Gund, and David Rockefeller, Jr., the Black Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art evolved from the visionary Friends of Education—a trailblazing initiative to cultivate a more reflective audience at the Museum, fund acquisitions by Black artists, support educational programming on Black art, and create opportunities for Black artists and arts professionals at MoMA.
The Black Arts Council continues its founding mission to strengthen the artistic tradition at MoMA by centering Black perspectives on modern and contemporary art that educate, inform, and elevate the canon across New York City and around the world.
Each year, the members-only programming of the Black Arts Council—from gallery talks and curatorial walk-throughs of groundbreaking exhibitions to intimate studio visits with artists, private collection visits, and more—fosters opportunities for Black artists and their work and illustrates this community’s unique ability to convene and champion artists of African descent at The Museum of Modern Art.
Pamela J. Joyner
Pamela J. Joyner has nearly 30 years of experience in the investment industry. She is the founder of Avid Partners, LLC, where her expertise has been the alternative investment arena. Currently, Joyner is focused on her philanthropic interests in the arts and education.
Joyner is a trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago, the J. Paul Getty Trust, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In 2020, she joined the board of trustees of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and in 2021 she became the co-chair of the Painting and Sculpture Committee. In 2020, with others, she also founded the Black Trustee Alliance for Art Museums. Previously, Joyner’s philanthropic involvements have included service as a member of President Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities, a trustee of Dartmouth College, a trustee of the New York City Ballet, a trustee and co-chair of the San Francisco Ballet Association, as well as other arts and educational organizations.
Alfred J. Giuffrida
Fred Giuffrida began his career at the law firm of Nixon, Hargrave, Devans & Doyle, a predecessor of Nixon Peabody LLP, and served as its managing director for five years. In between stints at Nixon Hargrave, he was an executive officer of a venture-funded start-up, Empire Airlines. Giuffrida received a BA from the University of Notre Dame, followed by a JD from Harvard Law School. At the end of 2022, Giuffrida retired as managing director of Horsley Bridge Partners, where he worked for 27 years, and today serves as a manager and treasurer of Blue Sky Trust, LLC.
Giuffrida has been an active supporter of the visual and performing arts as well as various charitable causes, performing roles including Chairman Elect of the Nevada Museum of Art, and director of the Renown Health Foundation and Friends of New Curators.
Simone Leigh
Over the last 20 years Simone Leigh has created a multifaceted body of work incorporating sculpture, video, and installation, all informed by her ongoing exploration of Black female-identified subjectivity. Leigh describes her work as auto-ethnographic, and her salt-glazed ceramic and bronze sculptures often employ forms traditionally associated with African art. Her performance-influenced installations create spaces where historical precedent and self-determination commingle.
Leigh was born in Chicago in 1967 and first began exhibiting her work in the early-2000s. She has had one-person exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Modern, London; the Studio Museum in Harlem; and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, among others. In 2014 she presented “The Free People’s Medical Clinic” in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, a project commissioned by Creative Time. Her work was included in the 2012 and 2019 Whitney Biennials. Leigh is the first artist to be commissioned for the High Line Plinth: her monumental sculpture Brick House was unveiled in April 2019. Leigh represented the United States at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022 with her exhibition Simone Leigh: Sovereignty. Her work was also included in the central exhibition, The Milk of Dreams, for which she was awarded the Golden Lion for Best Participant. In 2022, she presented “Loophole of Retreat: Venice,” a three-day symposium curated by Rashida Bumbray and featured presentations by over 60 artists, writers, performers, and activists. In 2023, her 20-year career survey opened at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, and traveled to the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the California African American Museum in Los Angeles. Leigh’s bronze works will be featured at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens in a solo presentation that will open in late April 2025. The Royal Academy in London is organizing a large-scale solo exhibition of the artist’s work in fall 2027.
Phony Ppl
This collective of young Brooklyn musicians are each the product of classical training and musical parents who supported their limitless exploration and self-discovery. They have received praise from the likes of Tyler The Creator and Childish Gambino; performed with Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, and The Roots; and commanded the stage at festivals, on late-night television, and during their own residency at New York City’s legendary Blue Note.
Lead vocalist Elbee Thrie, a former Manhattan School of Music student, brings warmth through his vocals and lyrics. Aja Grant, a trained-composer, provides co-writing, keys, and much of the band’s arrangements. Strings are manned by guitarist Elijah Rawk and bassist and visual artist Bari Bass. The crew’s heartbeat is percussionist and former conservatory student Matthew Byas (the son of DJ Jazzy Jay of the legendary Zulu Nation).
After jam sessions throughout high school, different iterations of the band, and a honing of their sonic cornucopia, the band has taken pride in their genre-less sound. Throughout the years, they have dabbled in experimental splashes of jazz, hip-hop, R&B, reggae, soul, rock, and many more sub-genres.
Camari Mick
Executive Pastry Chef of Raf's and the Musket Room
The Black Arts Council
- Alvin Hall
- Eric Barkley
- Cordia Beverley
- Horace Brockington
- Sherry Bronfman
- Waldo Falkener
- Amy Goldrich
- Agnes Gund
- Phyllis Hollis
- AC Hudgins
- Bernard Lumpkin
- Ginger McKnight-Chavers
- Ruthard Murphy
- Marquita Pool-Eckert
- David Rockefeller
- Frances Savage
- Ryan Tarpley
- Richard Torres
- Dian Woodner
- Kathleen Adams
- Rolake Adeniran
- Eric Amaso and Wayetu Moore
- Letarik Amare
- Jane and Rose Aiello
- Jaala Alston
- Edwin Amador Artiles
- Nadine Augusta
- Sameer Aurora
- Victor Banjo
- Elaine Barfield
- Eric and Karole Barkley
- Akosua Barthwell Evans
- Arlene Bascom
- Brianna Beckham
- Horace Brockington
- Ramon Brown
- Diana Cagle
- Viljon Caka
- Heather Carter
- Garfield Clunie
- Lisa Coar
- Nedra Collins
- Najee Coverson
- Angelina Darrisaw
- Adama Diggs
- Kathleen Dill
- Alexa Donaphin
- Raymond Dorcely Jr.
- Atiba Edwards
- Ashley Elleby
- Getrude Erwin
- Norvella Dunwoody
- Waldo and Rita Falkener
- Janelle Faulk
- Kathy Fuld
- Vladimir Galiothe
- Tiffany Gara
- Roxane Gay
- Valerie Grant
- Zainah Gilles
- Amy Goldrich
- Agnes Gund
- Kwabena Gyimah-Asante
- Alvin Hall
- Carole Hall
- L. Priscilla Hall
- Zenola Harper
- Joyce Haupt
- Fredrick Harris
- Darcy Heusel
- Barbara Hoffman
- AC and Thelma Hudgins
- Corrine Irish
- William Jiggetts
- Austin Johnson
- Michelle Johnson
- Charisse Jones
- Bomopregha Julius
- Jeneane Kee
- Noel Kirnon
- Allegra Kochman
- Kelli Lane
- Andrew Lewin
- Bernard Lumpkin and Carmine Boccuzzi
- Jhanae Mahoney
- Kathleen Maignan
- Melissa Mathias
- Gay McDougall
- Ginger McKnight-Chavers
- Geraldine Moriba
- Jacklyn Monk
- Erika Moore
- Zenobia Morrow
- Ruthard Murphy
- Peter Norton
- Robin Nunn
- Shimite Obialo
- Tanya M. Odom
- Folasade Ologundudu
- Olutade Olulade
- Carl Owens
- Valerie Owolo
- Acacia Overstreet
- Will Palley
- Stinson Parks III
- Sarah Perkins
- Ava Perry
- Veronica Pollard
- Marquita Pool-Eckert
- Matt Powell and Stuart Archibald
- Amitha Raman
- David Rockefeller Jr.
- Diane Rodriguez
- Katie Rosenberg
- Asher Salik
- Isabelle Sajous
- Christine Sanders
- Frances Savage
- Corey Serrant
- Barbara Karp Shuster
- Marsha Simms
- Shamina Sneed
- Natasha Standard
- Bonita Stewart
- Kevin Stewart
- Brittani Taylor
- Stephanie Tinsley
- Richard Torres
- John David Treadwell
- Roger Tucker III
- Christopher Walker
- M. Sabir Ward
- Jamie Watson
- Michelle Morris Weston
- Danielle Williams
- Darryl S. Williams
- Sean Williams
- Kodie Walcott
- Dian Woodner
- Li Jun Xian
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