Ann Fertig Freedman, BFA 1971

*New York*

Born and raised in New York, Ann Fertig Freedman received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1971 from Washington University, where she was inspired by the modern collection built by art historian H.W. Janson. Upon graduation Freedman returned to New York and began her career at the front desk of the André Emmerich Gallery. In 1977 she moved to Knoedler & Company — one of the city’s preeminent spaces — as director of contemporary art and in 1993 was appointed to her current position as president and director.

Freedman has served on the Executive Board of Directors of the Art Dealers Association of America, of which Knoedler is a founding member; on the National Council of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts; and on the National Committee of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. She is involved with several charities, including MoMA Learning (The Museum of Modern Art Department of Education); The Make-a-Wish Foundation; The Gladney Center, Fort Worth; Citymeals-on-Wheels; and Weill-Cornell Lung Cancer Research Center.

Freedman lives in Manhattan with her husband of 36 years, Robert L. Freedman, and their daughter, Jessica, age 22. Ann and Robert are active both as collectors of art and as museum patrons. In addition to their recent gift of Frank Stella’s wall relief Lo Sciocco Senza Paura (1984) to the Sam Fox School’s Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, they have donated works from their collection to museums across the country, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Morgan Library & Museum and The Jewish Museum, all in New York; the National Gallery of Art and the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, both in Washington, DC; the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art; and the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, in Cambridge, MA.