Dr. Elizabeth Sackler is a public historian, arts activist, and American Indian advocate. Dr. Sackler is the founder and president of the American Indian Ritual Object Repatriation Foundation (AIRORF), CEO and President of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation, and President of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation. Dr. Sackler sits on the National Advisory Board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), Washington, D.C., is on the Board of Trustees of the Brooklyn Museum, New York City, and formerly sat on the board of the New Mexico Statuary Hall Foundation for the National Statuary Hall Collection at the Capitol, Washington, D.C.
Dr. Sackler lectures at universities and colleges in Manhattan. At the John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Stern School of Business at New York University she addressed the legal, ethical, and moral debates in the museum and art market worlds. She has authored numerous articles for scholarly journals and national magazines on cultural genocide; her chapter, “Calling for a Code of Ethics in the Indian Art Market,” is in Ethics and the Visual Arts (Elaine A. King and Gail Levin, editors, Allworth Press, 2006). Dr. Sackler has delivered papers on many panels over the last two decades, including: “Raising the Bar: Searching for an Ethical Morality” at the National Museum of American Indian; “Ethics, Morality, and the Cultural Genocide of the American Indian Peoples” at the New School; and “The Museum’s Role in the Repatriation of American Indian Cultural Material” at the Guggenheim Museum.
As President of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, Dr. Sackler was responsible for gifting the iconic feminist masterpiece, The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago, to the Brooklyn Museum in 2002, and establishing its permanent installation venue, the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art (EASCFA) at the Brooklyn Museum. With this endeavor, Dr. Sackler has realized her vision of highlighting women’s contributions in all fields throughout history and creating a space to share ideas and the ideals of feminism: equality, equity, and justice for all peoples.
Honored in 1999 by the Yurok Tribal Council, Dr. Sackler has continued to receive awards for her work in repatriation and in the museum world: In 2002, she received the “Women in the Arts Award” from the Brooklyn Museum of Art Community Committee; in 2003, she was named one of “21 Leaders of the 21st Century” from Women’s eNews; in 2004, she received the “President’s Award” from the Women’s Caucus for Art; in 2005, she was named “Native American of the Year” from Drums along the Hudson; in 2006, she received the prestigious “Distinguished Service to the Visual Arts Award” from ArtTable; in 2007, she received the “Women of Power and Influence Award” from NOW-NYC and the “Visionary Woman Award” from Moore College of Art in Philadelphia; and in 2008, she received the “Art to Life Award” from A.I.R. Gallery and Art and Living magazine.
Dr. Sackler lives in New York City, is the proud mother of two, Laura Louisell and Michael Sackler-Berner, and is the happy grandmother of Aidan and Madeleine. For more information, please visit: http://www.repatriationfoundation.org.
