A scholar, curator, and arts administrator, Thomas brings more than 15 years of experience working across the visual arts and academia, including leadership roles at foundations, university art museums, and nonprofits supporting contemporary artists. He comes to the Foundation from the Aspen Institute, where he served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies, and previously worked as Executive Editor and Assistant Curator to Okwui Enwezor. Thomas will begin at the Foundation in January 2023.

A conversation around the late art and life of Helen Frankenthaler and a celebration of the recent publication of Helen Frankenthaler: Late Works 1988—2009 (Radius Books). Participants include Douglas Dreishpoon, Director of the Helen Frankenthaler Catalogue Raisonné, Clifford Ross, artist, Director and Former Chair of the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, and Ann Temkin, The Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA.

Image: Helen Frankenthaler, Beginnings, 1994, acrylic on paper, 78 3/4 x 77 3/4 in. (200 x 197.5 cm) © 2022 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Advancing its $10 million commitment to climate action in the visual arts, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation expands its Climate Initiative with the next round of grants. Following the first phase of the initiative, which awarded funds exclusively to collecting museums, this second cycle of grants will reach a broader community within the visual arts by accepting applications from both collecting and non-collecting museums and institutions, including art schools, that are seeking to assess and rectify their impact on the environment. Nearly 50 institutions have received grants in this second cycle, with some $8.1 million conferred to date.

As part of its ongoing commitment to address critical issues impacting the visual arts, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation is dispersing $2.5 million to international organizations leading efforts to protect artists at risk around the world and cultural heritage in Ukraine.

Working with PEN America and World Monuments Fund, the Foundation has identified and addressed several core needs including emergency grants to artists, sustaining displaced and suppressed artists over time, and preserving both sites and collections important to cultural history.

Presented by Asia Society and the Foundation, the Frankenthaler Climate Art Awards aim to foster climate change awareness through the imagination and insights of an upcoming generation of visual artists.  Emerging artists (recent graduates or those enrolled in MFA programs in the U.S.) submitted work addressing climate change through www.climateartawards.org, and three recipients were selected by a jury panel comprised of leaders from four museums. The winners will receive a cash prize and will be honored at a ceremony at the Kennedy Center in April 2022 on the occasion of Asia Society's COAL + ICE exhibition.

Advancing its $10M Commitment to Climate Action in the Visual Arts, the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation will open the next application cycle of the Frankenthaler Climate Initiative on April 3, 2022. This $10-million commitment to support energy efficiency and clean energy projects in art museums and institutions across the U.S. will support both Collecting and Non-Collecting Visual Art Institutions as well as Art Schools. Following the first phase of the initiative, which awarded funds exclusively to collecting museums, this second cycle of grants will reach a broader community within the visual arts by accepting applications from both collecting and non-collecting museums and institutions, including art schools, that are seeking to assess and rectify their impact on the environment.