About

History

Emily Mason (1932—2019) was an American abstract painter and beloved mentor and teacher. During her prolific fifty-year career, she also tended to the posthumous career of her mother, Alice Trumbull Mason (1904—1971), a pioneer of American abstraction.

In 2018, Emily Mason established a not-for-profit foundation to support the legacy of Alice Trumbull Mason, while advancing opportunities in the arts to traditionally under-represented artists for generations to come. Following her death in December 2019, the Foundation broadened its mission to include the legacy and artwork of Emily Mason herself and in December of 2020, became known as the Emily Mason and Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation.

Vision

The names, artwork, and impact of the lives of Emily Mason and Alice Trumbull Mason will be substantiated within and outside the art historical canon. Using their stories and the resources they have endowed, we aim to provide an example in our activities as well as tangible opportunities for subsequent generations of artists.

Values

The Emily Mason | Alice Trumbull Mason Foundation embraces the fearlessness, creativity, and resilience of its artists. As an institution advancing two under-recognized artists, the values of diversity, equality, and inclusion are integral to our existence. Truly embracing these values requires the Foundation to be assertive and innovative in the face of ever-present implicit and explicit structural biases, both within and outside our own institution.

The Foundation believes clarity, transparency, and a thoughtful exchange of ideas foster lasting relationships. We carry this meaning within the robust and healthy dialogues within and outside the Foundation.

The Foundation believes in accuracy and integrity in the narrative we put forth on behalf of our artists and their legacies. We lean into the depth of the primary source material we have available through the rich archive we have inherited.

The Foundation believes in generosity as modeled by Emily Mason’s lifelong support of other artists and her establishing the foundation. The Foundation seeks to enable the success of promising artists through financial resources in order to help sustain future generations of artists.