In Memoriam | Charles C. Bergman, Chairman and CEO, The Pollock-Krasner Foundation
Bergman was the long-time Chair of NYFA’s Leadership Council.
We are saddened by the loss of Charles C. Bergman, Chairman and CEO of The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, an organization he was instrumental in founding. Bergman served as Chair of NYFA’s Leadership Council, a group created to advise NYFA’s Board and senior leadership.
“Charles was a friend to NYFA and individual artists internationally,” said Michael L. Royce, Executive Director, NYFA. “As an arts leader and advocate, he understood the value of supporting artists at all stages of their careers as well as in supporting arts organizations like NYFA. He will be greatly missed,” Royce added.
In 1985, Bergman was asked by the estate of Lee Krasner, the artist and widow of Jackson Pollock, to set up a foundation that would provide for “worthy and needy artists” in accordance with the wishes set forth in her will. The Pollock-Krasner Foundation is geared to specifically fund painters, sculptors, graphic, mixed-media, and installation artists for everything from studio rentals to artists’ supplies, to healthcare needs and money to single parent artists for child care. Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than 4,400 grants totaling over 71 million dollars to artists in 77 countries.
Bergman was a Senior Advisor to the Aspen Institute’s National Study of Artist Endowed Foundations project and a member of the Executive Board for the Children’s Radio Foundation. He was also a member of Harvard University Art Museum’s Advisory Council and the Education and Programming Committee of the Rubin Museum of Art, New York. He previously served on the Cultural Affairs Advisory Commission of New York City, appointed by Mayor Bloomberg, and on the New York State Council on the Arts, appointed by Governor Pataki.
The Smithsonian conducted an oral history interview with Bergman in 2010, discussing how he came to be active in the arts, how he helped activate Lee Krasner’s wishes by setting up the foundation that bears her name, and how the Foundation has evolved since its founding. Read the full transcript of the interview here and hear his 2017 interview with Art Agency, Partners on building legacy.
Image: Charles C. Bergman, Photo Credit: Joe Fornabaio.
