Margaret Morton
Director, Creativity and Free Expression
Margaret Morton is the director of the Creativity and Free Expression team, and has supported grantmaking in the arts and other forms of cultural expression.
Margaret joined the foundation in 2015. Previously, she was deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, where she oversaw funding for arts and cultural program activities and capital infrastructure. She also served as the department’s general counsel, in which capacity she devised new frameworks for grant programs, designed development resources to support arts administrators, and implemented a new model for addressing the affordability of space for artists. In addition, she guided large-scale capital funding initiatives for cultural institutions, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Brooklyn Academy of Music, and BRIC Arts/Media Center.
Prior to her work in the arts and cultural sector, Margaret served as counsel to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where she helped enact civil rights legislation and worked on immigration reform and judicial nominations. She also managed education, labor relations, and the equal employment opportunity portfolio for the New York State court system.
Margaret was a founding member of the East Harlem School at Exodus House and has been active on the Art Law Committee of the New York City Bar Association. She was a member of the New York City Lobbying Commission and is currently an appointee of the chief judge of the state of New York on the Commission on Judicial Nomination, which screens candidates for the New York Court of Appeals.
Margaret earned her juris doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center and her bachelor’s degree, in dance and American history, from Barnard College.
