Elizabeth Sackler


Elizabeth Ann Sackler is an American public historian and arts activist. She is the founder of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museum.

Early life and education

In 1966, Sackler graduated from New Lincoln School, an experimental private high school in New York City, where she became in involved in activism. In 1997, Sackler received her PhD with a concentration in public history from Union Institute & University.

Career

Early work

In 1992, Sackler became frustrated with Sotheby's refusal to repatriate Native American ceremonial masks, so she purchased them and returned them to their tribes of origin. This led her to become interested in art and social justice issues for American Indians, which led her to become the founding president of the American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation. She is also President of The Arthur M. Sackler Foundation and the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation.

Brooklyn Museum

In 2007, she founded the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, the first museum center devoted to female artists and feminist art, located at the Brooklyn Museum. A centerpiece of the center's collection is Judy Chicago's installation of her work, The Dinner Party, which is located at the Brooklyn Museum. Sackler and Chicago had been friends since the 1970s.
In June 2014, Sackler became the first woman to be elected Chairman by the Brooklyn Museum Board of Trustees, a position she held until June 2016. She has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Museum since 2000. More recently, Sackler's work has focused on issues related to women in prison, including the program series States of Denial: The Illegal Incarceration of Women, Children, and People of Color as well as the exhibition Women of York: Shared Dining, both at the Brooklyn Museum's Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

Family

Sackler was born in New York City to Arthur M. Sackler, psychiatrist, entrepreneur and philanthropist and Else Sackler, from Denmark. She has a sister, Carol Master. Sackler is a mother of two children.
In October 2017, Esquire and The New Yorker published critical articles outlining connections among Purdue Pharma, the larger Sackler family and Oxycontin's role in the opioid crisis. In response, Elizabeth Sackler claimed that neither she, nor her children, “benefited in any way” from the sale of Oxycontin or ever held shares in Purdue Pharma. Articles confirmed that her father's option in a different pharmaceutical company, Purdue Frederick, were sold shortly after his death in 1987, to Purdue Pharma owners Mortimer and Raymond Sackler, years before the advent of Oxycontin. Online outlet, Hyperallergic, reviewed legal documents confirming her statement and later articles in the New York Times, Associated Press, and other outlets published clarifications and corrections all confirming her branch of the family's separation from Purdue Pharma and all Oxycontin profits. Elizabeth Sackler said she admired Nan Goldin and all activists seeking to hold Purdue accountable for "morally abhorrent" behavior.

Honors and awards

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