For twenty-three years, the award has celebrated institutions that demonstrate extraordinary and innovative approaches to public service and have made a difference for individuals, families, and communities.
Water Music
Zao Wou-Ki and Global Music
Music and performing arts were lifelong passions of Zao’s, and in both his personal and professional lives, he surrounded himself with music, performers, and composers.
Revollusion, or the Battle of Utopias
Luis Camnitzer on Art, Education, and their Futures
“I don’t think you can learn without using boundless imagination, considering absurdity and failure, and analyzing and questioning the parameters used to transmit a message, both as a giver and a receiver.”
A Friendship
Zao Wou-Ki and I. M. Pei
“The relationship between these modernist masters had its roots in their common cultural history, but flourished in environments distant from that time and place.”
Come Tour With Me
On Being a Docent
“I smiled when I heard, “How do you know so much?” while on a spontaneous tour with a group of new docents two weeks ago, knowing these beginners would soon be asked the same question. We listen and share. We listen to share.”
Finding Zao Wou-Ki
A Global Project
“Two of the questions I have been hearing frequently since the opening of No Limits: Zao Wou-Ki on Mayflower Hill are Where did you get all of these paintings? and How did you find them?”
Peeking around the Back Side
The Art Doctor
“A look at the reverse of a painting can reveal a lot about its structure and stability; it’s a bit like examining the foundation of a house.”
A Suite Semester
My time with Picasso’s Vollard Suite
“In my seminar on the Vollard Suite, I learned how to look closely and how to help others look—for details, technique and style, visual connections to other works of art, and evidence of philosophical and symbolic influences.”
“Worlds Within Worlds”
Archaeology and the Art of Leonardo Drew
“Drew invited me to think differently about the ancient objects and ruins that I study each day, to see them in a new context of beauty and decay.”
A Bittersweet Goodbye
Saying Farewell to Patricia King
“The Museum was a staff of four—and we all wore multiple hats to say the least…I distinctly remember sweeping the gallery floors and installing exhibition labels right before each exhibition opening!”