Krista A. Thompson 2009 Driskell Prize Winner

2009 Prize Winner: Krista A. Thompson
The High Museum of Art has named scholar Krista A. Thompson, Assistant Professor of African Diaspora and African Art at Northwestern University and independent curator, as the 2009 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize. Learn more >>

2008 Prize Winner: Xaviera Simmons
Brooklyn-based artist Xaviera Simmons combines 21st-century media and traditional art forms, encompassing photography, performance, video and installation. Learn more >>

2007 Prize Winner: Franklin Sirmans
Franklin Sirmans is the curator of modern and contemporary art at the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas. Learn more >>

2006 Prize Winner: Willie Cole
Artist Willie Cole uses discarded everyday objects–such as irons, blow dryers and high-heeled shoes–to create iconic sculptures, installations and prints that present social, political or cultural perspectives of the urban African-American experience. Learn more >>

2005 Prize Winner: Dr. Kellie Jones
Dr. Kellie Jones is the inaugural recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Departments of History of Art and African-American Studies at Yale University. Learn more >>

The David C. Driskell Prize is awarded annually at the Driskell Prize Dinner in Atlanta. The fifth annual David C. Diskell Prize Awards Dinner will be held on Monday, April 20, 2009. If you are interested in learning more about the prize or annual dinner, please call Rhonda Matheison, chief financial officer, 404-733-4403.

Proceeds from the High's annual Driskell Prize Dinner go toward the David C. Driskell African-American Art Acquisition Fund and Endowment. Through this fund, the High has acquired works by artists such as Radcliffe Bailey, Willie Cole, John T. Scott and Renee Stout.

David C. Driskell is a practicing artist and scholar whose work on the African Diaspora spans more than four decades. The High Museum of Art's relationship with Driskell began in 2000, when the Museum presented the concurrent exhibitions "To Conserve a Legacy" and "Narratives of African-American Art and Identity: The David C. Driskell Collection," which examined African-American art in the broad historical context of modern and contemporary art. Born in 1931 in Eatonton, Georgia, Driskell is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University in 1955 and his Master of Fine Arts degree from Catholic University in 1962. He also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine in 1953 and studied art history in The Hague, Netherlands, in 1964.

More information about Driskell is available at www.driskellcenter.umd.edu.