What We Inherit: Family Trauma, Art, and the Stories Objects Tell

WEEKLY EDITION • August 26, 2026

In this week’s Practitioner podcast, Martha Frick Symington Sanger, great-granddaughter of Henry Clay Frick, explores how family trauma can live on through stories, silences, and the objects passed from one generation to the next. Drawing on the 10-year process of researching her family history, Sanger discusses the grief that shaped Frick’s art collecting, the resistance she encountered from relatives seeking to protect his legacy, and the power of examining the past to interrupt patterns before they reach the next generation.

The conversation offers a preview of themes Sanger will explore during her pre-conference session on narratives at the 2026 FFI Global Conference.