From February to April this year, the American Academy of Arts and Letters announced the winners of its annual awards. The 124-year-old institution held a ceremonial on May 18 to celebrate the honorees. Over $1.3 million in awards and prizes in architecture, visual arts, literature, and music were presented to sixty-five recipients. Alumni of the American Academy in Rome are well represented among the 2022 winners.
Highest Honors for Excellence in the Arts
Kara Walker (2016 Resident)
Gold Medal for Graphic Art
Anna Deavere Smith (2016 Resident)
Medal for Spoken Language
Art
Garrett Bradley (2020 Fellow)
Arts and Letters Award in Art
Carl D’Alvia (2013 Fellow)
Art Purchase Prize
Architecture
Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee (2017 Residents)
Arts and Letters Award in Architecture
Literature
Sarah Manguso (2008 Fellow)
Arts and Letters Award in Literature
Kirstin Valdez Quade (2019 Fellow)
Rosenthal Family Foundation Award
Music
Erin Gee (2008 Fellow) and James Mobberley (1990 Fellow)
Arts and Letters Awards in Music
Katherine Balch (2021 Fellow)
Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award in Music
Eric Nathan (2014 Fellow)
Goddard Lieberson Fellowship in Music
In addition, AAAL inducted twenty-one new members into the fold, bringing the total to three hundred across the arts. Members are elected for life and pay no dues. Among the early members include William Merritt Chase, Childe Hassam, Julia Ward Howe, Henry James, Edward MacDowell, Theodore Roosevelt, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John Singer Sargent, and Edith Wharton. Inducted this year are:
Architecture
Thomas Phifer (1996 Fellow)
Michael Van Valkenburgh (1988 Fellow)
Mabel O. Wilson (2022 Resident)
Music
David Sanford (2003 Fellow)
Christopher Theofanidis (1999 Fellow)
The American Academy of Arts and Letters was founded in 1898 as an honor society of the country’s leading architects, artists, composers, and writers. AAAL seeks to foster and sustain an interest in literature, music, and the fine arts by administering over seventy awards and prizes, exhibiting art and manuscripts, funding performances of new works of musical theater, purchasing artwork for donation to museums across the country, and presenting talks and concerts.