It’s the day after the New York Liberty defeated the Las Vegas Aces 93–85 to win the 2026 Commissioner’s Cup Championship, and Clara Wu Tsai couldn’t be more thrilled. The co-owner of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment—the parent company of the Liberty, Barclays Center, and the Brooklyn Nets—has been integral in pushing the WNBA team toward success, resulting in a 2024 WNBA Finals victory and the Liberty becoming the first WNBA team to win two Commissioner’s Cup Championships.
Wu Tsai, who started her personal collection in 2017, honored the Liberty’s 2024 championship win by commissioning artist LaToya Ruby Frazier to take portraits of the team’s winning roster. That series was the first commission for Brooklyn Art Encounters, a multi-year initiative implemented by Wu Tsai to bring world-class contemporary art to Barclays Center. This fall, the arena will unveil Sarah Sze’s Wave, an installation hanging above its main entrance.
Below, the philanthropist and businesswoman discusses how building her own art collection led to Brooklyn Art Encounters, and what it means for the surrounding community.
How did you start collecting art, and what are some key pieces in your collection?
I thought that living with art would enhance my everyday life. One of the first works that I acquired was an Agnes Martin, and I loved it. I was drawn to the combination of restraint, beauty, and rigor in her practice. The next piece of consequence I bought was a Felix Gonzalez-Torres light string. Both of them have this quiet simplicity, but at the same time, there’s a lot of feeling in them, almost like they’re moving. Over time, I started becoming drawn to contemporary artists like Rashid Johnson, Sarah Sze, and Derek Fordjour.
How did that lead to you starting an art program at Barclays Center?
Since then, my collecting philosophy has changed a bit—it’s less about acquiring works and more about supporting artists, because not that many people can live with great art. I became interested in creating opportunities for more people to encounter it, and that’s what led to the idea behind Brooklyn Art Encounters. Its purpose is to spark curiosity and imagination, and maybe awaken some sort of creative impulse. That’s one of the most powerful things that public art can do.
LaToya Ruby Frazier’s The Liberty Portraits was her first public art commission. How did that conversation start?
I first met LaToya at a Gordon Parks Foundation gala. We had a shared passion for basketball and also for elevating women athletes. She always dreamed of collaborating with the WNBA, and as our team advanced to the championships, inviting an artist of her caliber to create portraits of the team felt like the right thing to do.
LaToya shows us the sacrifices that are required, the mental and physical strength required, and the love that really sustains them through the highs and lows of professional sports.
There’s a difference between acquiring work for a private collection and commissioning it for a public building. How does your thinking shift when the audience is more than 17,000 people who came to watch basketball?
The audience changes everything because when you’re acquiring work for a private collection, you’re thinking about living with it, and how it’s going to speak to you over time. At Barclays, we’re thinking about a public encounter, because our audience isn’t arriving with the intention of seeing art. That means the work has to capture their attention, make them curious, and draw them in without requiring specialized knowledge. The challenge is to commission work that’s rigorous enough to gain merit in the art world, but also resonates with the broader public.
Paul Pfeiffer’s residency and Kambui Olujimi’s Skelly sculpture are both deeply rooted in Brooklyn. How did you think about what Brooklyn Art Encounters owes the neighborhood?
Paul Pfeiffer has spent his career exploring sports media spectacle and stadiums, so Barclays is a natural setting for his work, and his residency is going to extend beyond Barclays through workshops that he’s going to run with Shaun Leonardo for other artists, educators, and young people in Brooklyn on the topic of broadcast media. Kambui’s commission is rooted in Brooklyn’s history and culture, and is going to feature bronze figures playing the game of Skelly, and through that, it celebrates Brooklyn, past and present.
What do you hope to accomplish with Brooklyn Art Encounters?
I want artists to see Barclays as a place where they can realize ambitious public commissions, and I hope visitors discover artists whom they may never have encountered otherwise, and I hope they feel inspired and lighter as they go about their daily lives.
Museums ask people to come to the art. You’re putting the art where people already are. Do you think that changes what art can do?
Museums will always play an essential role, but not everyone feels comfortable walking into a museum. Here, we’re reaching people where they are, and so that changes who gets to experience art. Someone who comes for a game or a concert may unexpectedly discover an artist whose work will stay with them after they leave. Ultimately, our goal is to make art more accessible and to create opportunities for people to encounter it in their daily lives.
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