Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, has received the 2023 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize. The prize is given annually in recognition of continuing contributions to the arts, and was established through the will of legendary screen and stage actress Lillian Gish, known as the ‘First Lady of Cinema’. It bears a large cash award, currently valued at approximately $250,000.
Golden as been at the Studio Museum since 2000. She was named director and chief curator in 2005, succeeding Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims. Under Golden’s leadership, the museum has gained increased renown as a global leader in contemporary art, a centre for innovative education, and a cultural anchor in the Harlem community. Golden’s curation at the Studio Museum includes many exhibitions, including the inauguration in 2001 of the series of arrangements known as the F shows, highlighting emerging Black artists. Other exhibitions have included Chris Ofili: Afro Muses 1995–2005, Black Romantic: The Figurative in Contemporary African-American Art, and many more. Before the Studio Museum she was at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she organised numerous exhibitions, including the groundbreaking 1993 Whitney Biennial and her landmark exhibition Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in American Art in 1994. Golden, widely recognised for her curatorial leadership, is also the recipient of the 2010 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence from the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College and the J. Paul Getty Medal in 2018.
Established in 1994, the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize is given annually to an individual who has ‘made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to [humankind’s] enjoyment and understanding of life’. Past recipients include Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Sonia Sanchez, Maya Lin, Spike Lee, Laurie Anderson, Shirin Neshat and Ingmar Bergman.
