26th Annual Herb Alpert Award in the Arts Recipients to be Announced May 20, 2020

SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 25, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Now in its 26th year, the annual Herb Alpert Award in the Arts provides five unrestricted $75,000 grants to independent artists working in the fields of dance, film/video, music, theatre and visual art. On May 20, 2020, the five winners of this year's prize will be announced. The annual awards lunch held at the Herb Alpert Foundation in Santa Monica has been postponed.

"Two months ago, before the pandemic arrived here, 15 extraordinary artistic directors, curators, educators and Herb Alpert Award winners came together, in 5 separate panels, to ask: 'why support this artist at this moment in their artistic trajectory – and – right now, in the culture? Their decisions? They matter," says Irene Borger, Director, Herb Alpert Award in the Arts.

Among the 125 past winners of the Award are - Carrie Mae Weems, Vijay Iyer, Taylor Mac, Arthur Jafa, Suzan-Lori Parks, Julia Wolfe, Meshell Ndegeocello, Michelle Dorrance, Tania Bruguera, Kerry James Marshall, Lisa Kron, Okwui Okpokwasili, Sharon Lockhart, Ralph Lemon, and Cai Guo-Qiang.

The awards are adjudicated by three-member panels of noted artists, including many past winners and arts professionals in each of the five categories. The Herb Alpert Award in the Arts was conceived by Herb Alpert and his wife Lani Hall Alpert to reward creative experimenters who are challenging and transforming art, their respective disciplines, and society. In addition, the awards provide vital financial support to each artist at a key juncture in his or her creative development. This year's panelists are:

DANCE PANEL
Luciana Achugar - Choreographer, HAAIA recipient - Brooklyn, NY
Nan Friedman - Teacher, choreographer - Santa Monica, CA
Donna Uchizono - Dance artist, HAAIA recipient - New York, NY

FILM/VIDEO
Rizvana Bradley - Assistant Professor, History of Art and African American Studies, Yale University - New Haven, CT
Bruce Jenkins - Professor of Film, Video, New Media and Animation, School of The Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago, IL
Roya Rastagar - Filmmaker, curator, PhD. History of Consciousness - Los Angeles, CA

MUSIC
Molly Barth - Flutist, professor, Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Steve Coleman - Saxophonist, composer, band leader, HAAIA recipient - Allentown & NY
Miya Masaoka - Composer, sound artist, HAAIA recipient, assoc. professor, Sound Art Program, Columbia University - New York, NY

THEATRE
Raelle Myrick Hodges - Theater director, creative director, 651 Arts - Brooklyn, NY
Johanna McKeon - Director - New York, NY
Diane Rodriguez - Director, writer, producer, Rodriguez Projects - Los Angeles, CA

VISUAL ARTS
Ondine Chavoya - Professor of art, Williams College - Williamstown, MA
Paul Ha - Director, MIT List Visual Arts Center - Cambridge, MA
Naima Keith - Vice President, Education & Public Programs, LACMA - Los Angeles, CA

Initiated and funded by The Herb Alpert Foundation, the awards are administered by the California Institute of the Arts, CalArts, which was selected by the Foundation 26 years ago based on a shared vision of the transformative power of the arts.

The Herb Alpert Foundation envisions a world in which all young people are blessed with opportunities that allow them to reach their potential and lead productive and fulfilling lives. Over the past few years, the Foundation has focused on core areas: "The Arts," a broad category that includes arts education, a focus on jazz, and support to professionals. This also includes programs that seek to use the arts to help meet the needs of underserved youth and to help build competencies that will enable them to become successful adults. The other core area is "Compassion and Well-Being,"which celebrates the positive aspects of human psychology and seeks to bring more compassion and compassionate behavior to our society. The Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.

CalArts is recognized internationally as a leading laboratory for the visual, performing, media and literary arts. Housing six schools—Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music, and Theater—CalArts educates professional artists in an intensive learning environment founded on art-making excellence, creative experimentation, cross-pollination among diverse artistic disciplines, and a broad context of social and cultural understanding. CalArts also operates the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT) in the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex in downtown Los Angeles.

SOURCE Herb Alpert Foundation