Joan Mondale (1930–2014)

Joan Mondale, née Adams, was born in Eugene, Oregon. She attended Macalester College, where she majored in history with a double minor in French and art, her lifelong passion. In 1952, after graduation, she worked as a librarian at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, then returned to Minnesota, where she became an education assistant at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. During this time, she met Walter Mondale, then a law student. The couple married in 1955 and had three children. In 1964, the Mondales moved to Washington, DC, when her husband was appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey. There Ms. Mondale took classes with a master potter. She gave guided tours at the National Gallery of Art and wrote Politics in Art, a book for children and young adults, published in 1972. After her husband took office as Vice President in 1977, Ms. Mondale became President Jimmy Carter's de facto arts adviser. She served as honorary chairwoman of the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities and traveled the country to raise public and private support for the arts. She turned the Vice President's official residence, on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory, into a showcase for American art, with loans from museums and artists around the country. She was nicknamed "Joan of Art" by the news media. Mr. Mondale became U.S. Ambassador to Japan in 1993, and Ms. Mondale arranged for the loan of art from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles for the Ambassador's residence in Tokyo, where she also promoted public art. She continued her arts advocacy after her husband retired from politics in 1996. Just in their first two months back in Minnesota, she created an airport arts program, introduced a film series, and joined the boards of the Walker Art Center and the Minnesota Orchestra. She also published Letters From Japan (1998), a collection of essays. She was awarded the Barnard College Medal of Distinction, the Public Art Network Award, and a Distinguished Service to the Arts award from the Cleveland Arts Prize.