Peggy Cooper Cafritz (1947–2018) was a Washington, D.C., arts patron, educator, and civil-rights activist who co-founded the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in 1974 and spent her life collecting work by artists of African descent. Cafritz described her “relentless search for beauty” as “always, in part, a political act.” She built two collections: the first was destroyed in a house fire in 2009; the second, assembled in the years that followed, comprised more than 400 works by over 200 artists. Upon her death, Cafritz bequeathed much of it to the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Duke Ellington School, bringing many artists into the museum’s collection for the first time. Kerry James Marshall, Simone Leigh, Deana Lawson, Titus Kaphar, Wangechi Mutu, Toyin Ojih Odutola, and Nick Cave are among those represented. The Studio Museum is now staging the first exhibition devoted to Cafritz’s vision as a collector, rather than simply her legacy as a donor. —Elena Clavarino