Lorraine O’Grady, Emily Jacir Among American Academy of Arts’s 2023 Awardees
Artist Faith Ringgold and scholar Helen Hennessy Vendler received this year’s gold medals.
Taylor Michael March 19, 2023
Artists and activist Faith Ringgold, photographer and philanthropist Susan Unterberg, and literary critic Helen Hennesy Vendler have received the highest honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for their contributions to the arts. The announcement comes a week after eight artists — Emily Jacir, Tala Madani, Mary Miss, Lorraine O’Grady, Sandy Rodriguez, Cameron Rowland, Cauleen Smith, and Ouattara Watts — received this year’s art awards. Recipients will be honored at a ceremony on May 24.
In a statement shared with Hyperallergic, the Academy notes that all three female honorees are artists and advocates in the field. “These three recipients have dedicated parts of their careers to furthering the work of other artists, be it through criticism and essays that taught a public how to read and understand poetry, art, and activism that helped make space for Black women artists, or innovative awards that have recognized hundreds of women artists,” the Academy’s president Kwame Anthony Appiah said. ( … )