The Green Family Art Foundation (GFAF), a Dallas-based nonprofit foundation, has announced on social media that they have acquired a new permanent space in the city’s downtown Arts District.
Though the GFAF only opened their physical space in 2021, the foundation was established in 2001. Created as an operating foundation, the GFAF initially focused on grants to museums in support of acquisitions and exhibitions. Over the years they have provided funding to The Guggenheim, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the Hammer Museum. Texas based museums have acquired works by the following artists with support from the GFAF:
—Dallas Museum of Art: Jenna Gribbon, Lucy Bull and Ebecho Muslimova, and Nina Chanel Abney
—Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth: Jammie Holmes and Danielle Mckinney,
—The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Rachel Jones
—Nasher Sculpture Center: Nicolas Party and Simone Leigh
—Blanton Museum of Art: Louis Fratino
With the opening of their space, the GFAF broadened their mission to also include a focus on exhibiting works by emerging and established artists, and bringing awareness to the general public about artists who are addressing culturally relevant topics. Currently, the GFAF is located in Dallas’ Design District, a few blocks west of the Dallas Contemporary.
The foundation’s recently acquired permanent space in Dallas’ Arts District is walking distance from the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center. Eric Green, one of the foundation’s trustees, told Glasstire that the new 4,000-square-foot space is set to open in June. The GFAF is currently in talks with the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts about hosting the institution’s exhibition Joan Semmel: Skin the Game as its inaugural show in the new space. Alongside the Semmel exhibition, the GFAF is planning a concurrent show of Hannah Lupton Reinhard’s work.
Aside from providing more space for larger exhibitions, Bailey Summers, the GFAF’s Director, told Glasstire that the new venue will also broaden the foundation’s opportunities to host artist talks, panel discussions, and other events.
Beyond the work of the foundation, the Green family has also spent the last fifteen years building their own private collection. The family’s eldest son, Adam, who holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute of Art, has spearheaded this process.
Currently, the collection consists of over four hundred works of art and includes pieces by Texas artists David Bates, Jammie Holmes, Francisco Moreno, and Deborah Roberts. Other notable artists in the collection include Amy Sherald, David Hammons, Mark Bradford, Ed Clark, Dana Schutz, Nicole Eisenman, Nicolas Party, Louis Fratino, Doron Langberg, and Alice Neel. The collection has also gifted works of art to institutions across the United States.
The final exhibition in the GFAF’s current space, Women of Now: Dialogues of Memory, Place & Identity, will be on view from February 12 – May 22, 2022.