African Art Recognition Award
Encyclopedia
The Detroit Institute of Arts
(DIA) Department of Africa, Oceania and Indigenous Americas established the African Art Recognition Award in 2005. This award is given annually to honor the exemplary lifetime contributions of distinguished artists, scholars, collectors, and other citizens to the development and promotion of African art. Presented as the next major event on the department’s calendar after the Bal Africain, the award has since 2005 become a fixture in the DIA’s October programs. It is sponsored by the Friends of African and African American Art.
The following are among the qualifications for selecting candidates:
Detroit Institute of Arts
The Detroit Institute of Arts is a renowned art museum in the city of Detroit. In 2003, the DIA ranked as the second largest municipally owned museum in the United States, with an art collection valued at more than one billion dollars...
(DIA) Department of Africa, Oceania and Indigenous Americas established the African Art Recognition Award in 2005. This award is given annually to honor the exemplary lifetime contributions of distinguished artists, scholars, collectors, and other citizens to the development and promotion of African art. Presented as the next major event on the department’s calendar after the Bal Africain, the award has since 2005 become a fixture in the DIA’s October programs. It is sponsored by the Friends of African and African American Art.
The following are among the qualifications for selecting candidates:
- The awardees must have achieved broad influence through diverse activities relevant to African art: art production, collecting, teaching, research and publication, exhibition development, museum practice, cultural preservation and restitution, and funding support.
- As a precondition for receiving the award, the honoree will give or take part in an on-site public presentation – lecture, interview, demonstration, etc.
- When possible (and appropriate), the curator will arrange for a relevant temporary art installation that relates to the honoree’s contribution.
- The FAAAA shall hold a public reception in conjunction with the award ceremony.
Past honorees
- 2005---Dr. Ekpo Eyo, Scholar and first director of the Nigerian Department of National Antiquities
- 2006---Dr. Paula Girschick Ben-Amos
- 2007---Dr. Robert Farris ThompsonRobert Farris ThompsonRobert Farris Thompson is the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art at Yale University....
, Renowned Scholar in the Arts of Africa and the African Diaspora - 2008---Prof. Magdalene OdundoMagdalene OdundoMagdalene Anyango Namakhiya Odundo, OBE is a Kenyan-born British studio potter.She was born in Nairobi and received her early education in both India and Kenya. She moved to England in 1971 to continue her training in graphic art. In 1974-1975, she visited Nigeria and Kenya to study traditional...
, OBE, ceramist