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Hilarie M. Sheets of the New York Times is reporting that Thelma Golden, the director and chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, has been awarded the 2016 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence by Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies. The award includes an unrestricted $25,000 prize.
The Executive Director of the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Tom Eccles, told the New York Times:
“Thelma today may be thought of as part of the system but she still is a gritty, independent voice raising many issues broader in society from the art world…many of my students in the graduate program are thinking about the work of Thelma Golden and asking to look at the 1993 Whitney Biennial and ‘Black Male’ and the kinds of issues she’s brought up at the Studio Museum.”
Golden joins previous recipients of the 19-year-old award including: Christine Tome and Martha Wilson (2015), Charles Esche (2014), and Elisabeth Sussman (2013).
Golden began her career at the Studio Museum in 1987, then spending a decade at the Whitney Museum, before returning to the Harlem institution in 2000 as deputy director. Golden has led the Studio Museum since 2005.
Earlier this year Golden announced plans for a new building designed by David Adjaye. Eccles elaborated on the judge’s decision to select Golden as the award winner, saying Golden’s devotion to “maintaining a vision and a commitment over a long time to an institution that’s not glamorous or wealthy,” was also a consideration of the panel.
For more information visit the New York Times.
This post was written by Reginald Calhoun. He is a senior Mass Media Arts major at Clark Atlanta University. Follow him on Twitter @IRMarsean and on Instagram @Les_geaux_jawn.
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