During this long period of obstacles, disappointments and isolation, you can imagine how invigorating – and joyous – it has been for panelists to come together to recognize art makers who are boldly envisioning alternate futures and grappling with the central issues of our time.
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (PRWEB) March 10, 2022
May 4th, 2022 will mark the 28th annual celebration of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (HAAIA) and the second consecutive year the number of awards has doubled from five to ten. The awardees, risk-taking, mid-career artists – experimenters - are challenging and transforming art, their respective disciplines, and society. Fifteen highly regarded leaders in the arts make up the panels overseeing the artist nominations, selecting two award recipients in each of five disciplines: dance, film/video, music, theatre and visual arts.
The awards were founded and conceived by legendary musician, philanthropist and artist Herb Alpert, and his Grammy-winning vocalist wife, Lani Hall. Now in its 28th year, the HAAIA has to date been awarded to 140 artists. Each awardee receives a $75,000 unrestricted prize and residency at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts) which administers the prize on behalf of the Herb Alpert Foundation.
Herb Alpert and Lani Hall created the Herb Alpert Foundation in 1985 and over thirty years and more than $200 million dollars later, Herb Alpert remains one of America’s most important and loyal advocates for the arts and arts education. Having witnessed the gradual, and sometimes precipitous decline of funding for the arts, Herb Alpert took action and the arts found a new arena of significant support – and a new champion.
Irene Borger, Director of HAAIA since its inception in 1994, reflects on the Award’s continued importance in such a trying time for artists. “During this long period of obstacles, disappointments and isolation, you can imagine how invigorating – and joyous – it has been for panelists to come together to recognize art makers who are boldly envisioning alternate futures and grappling with the central issues of our time.”
Rona Sebastian, President of the Herb Alpert Foundation added, “Deeply aware of the challenges art makers and performing artists continue to face at this moment, Herb and Lani Alpert are committed in their support of artists who create rigorous, challenging, enlivening and necessary work.”
Today, the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts announces the 2022 panelists (see below). Each award in the five categories is adjudicated by three-member panels of respected arts professionals and artists, including six past HAAIA winners among this year’s panelists.
2022 Herb Alpert Award Panelists
DANCE
Roya Amirsoleymani - artistic director & curator of public engagement, Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR
Thomas F. DeFrantz - performer, professor of theatre and performance studies, Northwestern University, Chicago
Olga Garay-English - international arts consultant, Los Angeles
FILM/VIDEO
Romi Crawford - art historian, professor of Visual and Critical Studies, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz - artist, Herb Alpert Award Winner, San Juan, PR
Deborah Stratman - filmmaker/artist, professor of Art, University of Illinois at Chicago, Herb Alpert Award Winner, Chicago
MUSIC
George Lewis - composer, Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music, Composition & Historical Musicology - Columbia University, Herb Alpert Award winner, New York
Gustavo Matamoros - composer, interdisciplinary artist, founder, Subtropics Festival, Miami
Myra Melford - pianist, composer, improvisor, professor, UC Berkeley, Herb Alpert Award winner, Berkeley, CA
THEATRE
Erik Ehn - playwright, educator, Herb Alpert Award winner, Albuquerque, NM
Maria Manuela Goyanes - Artistic Director, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Washington, D.C.
Lloyd Suh - playwright, Herb Alpert Award winner, South Orange, NJ
VISUAL ARTS
Cecilia Fajardo-Hill - independent curator, art historian, writer, Los Angeles
Eungie Joo - Curator of Contemporary Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco
Claire Tancons - curator, writer, researcher, Paris, works in situ
Among the 140 past winners are noted artists: Carrie Mae Weems, Taylor Mac, Suzan-Lori Parks, Julia Wolfe, Michelle Dorrance, Tania Bruguera, Kerry James Marshall, Lisa Kron, Sharon Lockhart, Ralph Lemon, Arthur Jafa, Cai Guo-Qiang, Okwui Okpokwasili and Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah to name a few.
The 28th HAAIA awards celebration will be held virtually on Thursday, May 4, 2022.