Nell Painter (Chair), the author of The History of White People; Sojourner Truth, A Life, A Symbol; and Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over, is Madame Chairman of MacDowell’s Board of Directors. She writes opinion pieces for the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Paris Review, and other journals when not painting self-portraits and reading artist’s books that visualize people and history.

(Photo credit: Dwight Carter)