The Whirlwind Rise of Abby Pucker, Chicago’s Next-Gen Pritzker Art Apostle

One of the newest hot-ticket connections in the Chicago art community this year was a dinner with a civic and cultural agency called Gertie. Coinciding with events from EXPO CHICAGO, the city’s largest art fair, such an invite-only supper might include artists like Nick Cave, galleries like Patron Gallery and cultural entities like Theaster Gates’ Rebuild Foundation. Gertie and friends have also spearheaded the DNC’s very public art program, hosted an event at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and were referenced in the New York Times and Vanity Fair. All very impressive, given that the institution was only founded in 2022.

“I’m constantly trying to connect things to Gertie or make opportunities for people who are in our orbit,” founder Abby Pucker told Observer. “When I was younger, my mom used to say that I would go to the opening of an envelope.”

There is a secret sauce to Gertie’s considerable success. The 32-year-old is a scion of the billionaire Pritzker family, which made its fortune from the Hyatt Hotel chain and is one of the country’s ten richest families. The Pritzkers have long supported the arts community in Chicago, and big names abound. JB Pritzker, for example, is a cousin—and the governor of Illinois since 2019.

Other family notables include Anthony Pritzker, a longtime donor to L.A.’s Hammer Museum, and Jennifer Pritzker, founder of the Pritzker Military Museum and Library and the world’s only openly transgender billionaire. Penny Pritzker, the former US Secretary of Commerce, also served as chair of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Gigi Pritzker Pucker (Abby’s mom) sits on the board of the Chicago Children’s Museum.

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Abby Pucker, however, is part of the newer Pritzker cohort, and her movements offer insight into changing generational patterns that are increasingly driving cultural change as the old guard of patrons, donors and fundraisers age. Notably, her non-traditional approach landed her a spot on Observer’s 2024 Business of Art Power List.

“I think a lot of institutions are really used to that model of the naming of a wing, or the naming of a space or putting your name on something, and I really don’t think that’s how this next generation wants to interact for the most part,” Pucker says. “People are really craving a connection, and they want to be part of something.”

To that end, Gertie launched a membership network called EarlyWork, which offers access to dinners, networking events and artist studio tours at a monthly fee of $55 (one-quarter of Chicago’s SoHo House membership, for comparison).

“Everyone’s having the same issue, right? Collectors are aging up and people are trying to figure out, where are the next generation of donors?” Pucker says. “I can be a conduit to people who are my generation of civic and business leaders.”

One of Pucker and Gertie’s earliest supporters was Monique Meloche, whose eponymous Monique Meloche Gallery has exhibited artists such as Mickalene Thomas, Hank Willis Thomas and Carrie Mae Weems. Meloche has been a witness to many of the ups and downs of the city’s art economy since opening for business in 2000, and she says that Gertie has delivered results.

“The sheer number of people that Gertie has driven into the gallery when they do these [events], I’m talking about from 500 to 800 a day—which is insane for Chicago,” Meloche told Observer. “Maybe that happens normally in New York, but those numbers do not compute in the twenty-five-year history of having my gallery.”

Meloche theorized that part of Gertie’s success comes down to the hands-on efforts of Pucker and Gertie’s staff, even as their scope expands.  “She’s made herself known here and she’s civically minded and she supports institutions and she shows up to galleries and so people know her. And you know, it doesn’t hurt that she’s affiliated with the Pritzker family—that’s a name that people are aware of—but she’s really worked hard.”

Tony Karman.">

That approach from Pucker is reminiscent of Lois Weisberg, the city’s former Commissioner of Cultural Affairs. Weisberg was profiled by Malcolm Gladwell for her ability to connect people across the city, and her legacy includes the renovation of the Harold Washington Library, the development of the Chicago Blues Festival and helping to build the city’s iconic Millennium Park (with input from Pucker’s grandmother, Cindy Pritzker). For people who know Pucker, the comparison is not alien.

“[Weisberg] was a pretty incredible individual,” EXPO CHICAGO founder Tony Karman told Observer. “She had not just a great instinct for the well-being of our city and the cultural community but she also fostered so many new initiatives for Chicago. Both of those things are applicable for what [Pucker] is doing with Gertie and her other initiatives.”

Karman, who has worked with both Weisberg and Pucker, says that Pucker and Gertie are operating with different headwinds than Weisberg faced in the late 20th Century, but Pucker’s unique position is invaluable for Chicago.

“She’s of a generation that will be shaping our city, with other scions of leading families,” Karman added. “She’s showing them, I think, ways to be equally as active and engaged in the arts and cultural community.”