New York Academy of Art Says It Will Donate Epstein Money
The announcement follows new revelations about sex offender's ties to the school in the latest release of Epstein files.
Last week, the New York Academy of Art (NYAA) told its students and alumni that it will donate $65,900 in funds associated with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to an organization supporting survivors of sex trafficking.
In an email reviewed by Hyperallergic, the NYAA board admitted to “serious failures in judgment and governance” in the school's continued relationship with the disgraced financier after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution, new details of which were recently revealed in the latest release of Epstein files.
“As we noted in our letter to our Community and as we have said previously, the Academy apologizes for and regrets its past association with Mr. Epstein, which ended well before his arrest in 2019,” NYAA said in an emailed statement to Hyperallergic. The school also said it will develop an ethics committee to review and recommend policies for institutional donor support.
The graduate-level private school, co-founded in 1982 by Andy Warhol and Stuart Pivar, said that $65,900 in contributions Epstein made to NYAA events in 2012 and 2014 will be donated to Girls Educational and Mentoring Services (GEMS), a nonprofit for girls and women who have survived commercial sexual exploitation and domestic trafficking.
The school had previously made a $30,000 donation — matching the figure Epstein had directly provided to NYAA in 2014 for scholarship and fellowship support — to GEMS in 2020 when it apologized to MFA'95 alum and Epstein whistleblower Maria Farmer, who filed the first report against him in 1996.
Farmer has stated that then-NYAA Dean (and current board chair) Eileen Guggenheim introduced her to Epstein, who sat on the Academy's board from 1987 to 1994, and Ghislaine Maxwell during her thesis show in 1995. Guggenheim allegedly instructed her to sell Epstein one of her paintings at a discount. Shortly after, Epstein hired Farmer as an art advisor and property manager for the Manhattan townhouse he purchased from his client, billionaire retail tycoon Leslie Wexner.
Farmer used Epstein's Ohio residence as a studio space to complete an external commission in the summer of 1996, during which she alleged that Epstein and Maxwell had sexually assaulted her and had stolen nude photos of her underage sisters that she intended to use as artistic references. The artist left the residence and learned that her younger sister Annie, then 16, had also alleged that Epstein and Maxwell had inappropriate sexual contact with her when she visited Epstein's New Mexico ranch that same year.
When Farmer returned to New York, she filed a report against Epstein and Maxwell with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which went ignored for a decade. Epstein ultimately pleaded guilty to the state charge of soliciting a minor in 2008 and was incarcerated for 13 months in Florida while reaping the benefits of a work-release program.
The trove of Epstein files released in January revealed that the financier purchased a $25,000 table for the Academy's annual Tribeca Ball fundraiser event in 2012 and 2014. He also donated $30,000 to the Portrait Scholarship fund in 2014 per an invitation from Guggenheim. Several emails indicate that Guggenheim encouraged Epstein's relationship and contributions to the school.
The NYAA acknowledged the specific incidents of Epstein's support in its email to students and alumni, stating that “the Academy should not have accepted these contributions from Epstein, nor allowed him to attend Academy events such as Tribeca Ball or Take Home a Nude.”
“He should not have been permitted to participate in the Portrait Scholarship program or to visit the school,” the board's message continued. The email also outlined that Guggenheim will prepone her planned retirement as the board chair by one month, opting to leave this coming April instead of May.
The latest Epstein file drop has shed light on the sex offender's connections throughout arts and culture institutions. Last month, David A. Ross resigned from his role as the MFA Arts Practice chair at the School of Visual Arts after several email exchanges revealed his support for Epstein years after his 2008 conviction. The tranche also yielded new details on allegations of sexual violence by billionaire and Museum of Modern Art trustee Leon Black.
