Programs » Awards for Distinction
Distinguished Feminist Awards
CAA presents two annual Distinguished Feminist Awards: one presented to a visual artist or designer who, through outstanding efforts in their practice or advocacy, has advanced the cause of equality for women in the arts; one presented to a scholar who, through outstanding efforts in their scholarship, curatorial practice, or advocacy, has advanced the cause of equality for women in the arts. This award was established in 2007 to honor a person who, through their art, scholarship, or advocacy, has advanced the cause of equality for women in the arts. From 1996 to 2008, this award was presented as an Annual Recognition Award by CAA’s Committee on Women in the Arts (CWA) at a ceremony at the Annual Conference.
2023
Nalini Malani and Marsha Meskimmon
Nalini Malani’s work has been recognized in solo exhibitions at over thirty international institutions. Her work has embraced painting, video, stop-motion, and other time-based media, while engaging issues of women’s equality in India, where her family took refuge in 1946 after the partition. Malani’s early career in painting gave way to a more focused approach to time-based media in the 1990s, making works such as the 1998 Remembering Toba Tek Singh, a meditation on nuclear testing in India and Pakistan. Focusing on the aftereffects of the devastating partition of India and Pakistan, Malani’s work has been liberal in its use of media types and productions, including the emotive devices of theater.
Malani has turned this unflinching attention to the ways in which the woman’s body has been used as a pawn in games of nationalism and internationalism. Her Mother India: Transitions in the Construction of Pain (2005) combined archival footage and other imagery, a series of juxtapositions that shed new light on the depicted contorted bodies of women. She continues this thread in a 2020 multimedia performance of images projected onto the Taj Mahal Hotel, inspired by the week-long gang rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl. Malani’s work is a beacon; her work is eminently important now as the world bears witness to an increase in femicide and gender-based violence.
Marsha Meskimmon, PhD is a professor of art history who studies, teaches, and writes on global feminisms. Her groundbreaking scholarly work has been matched by a commitment to promoting and mentoring women in the field. Meskimmon is editor for Drawing In, and she is also a consultant editor for Open Arts Journal. She has authored or co-authored twelve books over her career, with a sustained focus on the political stakes of feminism and its ability to shed light on the circulation of art and the discourse of aesthetics. With Amelia Jones, she edits the book series Rethinking Art’s Histories for Manchester University Press, a series that has promoted books that rethink art and its histories, and has used feminist thought in relation to “global” and non-Western approaches to art history. Her work on the exhibition Whack! Art and the Feminist Revolution marked an important return to feminism in the art world, a redefinition of the stakes and of the purview of its ideas. Her essay for the exhibition succeeded in arguing why feminism is global—describing it as a constellation of approaches, places, and times. It models an interdisciplinary and collaborative idea of feminism, not a static theory that spreads from the North Atlantic out to world. Her tireless work on behalf of women in the arts is a model for scholars who do their work out of a stated commitment.
Jury Members:
Delinda Collier, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chair
Yvonne Love, Penn State University
Midori Yoshimoto, New Jersey City University
PAST WINNERS
Since 2009, the Distinguished Feminist Award has honored such influential leaders in the visual arts field as Griselda Pollock, Faith Ringgold, Lucy R. Lippard, and many more. For past winners of the CWA Annual Recognition Awards, scroll down further.
2022
In lieu of the Distinguished Feminist awards, CAA recognized leaders in the field of feminist art and art history in our 2022 programming highlighting the 50th Year Anniversary of feminism at CAA.
Jury: Robin Cass, Rochester Institute of Technology, Chair; Delinda J. Collier, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and Midori Yoshimoto, New Jersey City University
2021 Simone Leigh — Artist
2021 Katy Deepwell — Scholar
Jury: Delinda J. Collier, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Arnold Joseph Kemp, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Robin Cass, Rochester Institute of Technology; and Elizabeth Duffy, Roger Williams University.
2020 Adrian Piper — Visual Artist
2020 Maud K. Lavin — Scholar
Jury: Janet Goldner, Independent Artist, co-chair; Arnold Joseph Kemp, School of the Art Institute of Chicago co-chair; Robin Cass, Rochester Institute of Technology; and Elizabeth Duffy, Roger Williams University.
2019 Senga Nengudi — Visual Artist
2019 Anna C. Chave — Scholar
Jury: Janet Goldner, independent artist, New York City, cochair; Arnold Joseph Kemp, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, cochair; Elizabeth Duffy, independent artist, New York City; Jeannene Przyblyski, California Institute of the Arts
2018 Lynn Hershman Leeson — Visual Artist
2018 Lowery Stokes Sims — Scholar
Jury: Claudia Sbrissa, St. John’s University, chair; Janet Goldner, independent, New York City; Arnold Joseph Kemp, School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and Jeannene Przyblyski, California Institute of the Arts.
2017 Joan Marter
Jury: Hilary Robinson, Middlesex University, chair; Claudia Sbrissa, St. John’s University; and Kathleen Wentrack, Queensborough Community College, The City University of New York.
2016 Carrie Mae Weems
Jury: Hilary Robinson, Middlesex University, chair; Claudia Sbrissa, St. John’s University; and Kathleen Wentrack, Queensborough Community College, City University of New York
2015 Amelia Jones
Jury: Maria Elena Buszek, University of Colorado, Denver, chair; Hilary Robinson, Middlesex University; and Kathleen Wentrack, Queensborough Community College, City University of New York.
2014 Lorraine O’Grady
Jury: Anne Swartz, Savannah College of Art and Design, chair; Julia Bryan-Wilson, University of California, Berkeley; and Maria Elena Buszek, University of Colorado, Denver
Faith Ringgold (photograph by Grace Matthews)
2013 Harmony Hammond and Martha Rosler
Jury: Anne Swartz, Savannah College of Art and Design, chair; Julia Bryan-Wilson, University of California, Berkeley; and Maria Elena Buszek, University of Colorado, Denver
2012 Lucy R. Lippard
Jury: Frima Fox Hofrichter, Pratt Institute, chair; Julia Bryan-Wilson, University of California, Berkeley; and Anne Swartz, Savannah College of Art and Design
2011 Faith Ringgold
Jury: Lowery Stokes Sims, Museum of Arts and Design, chair; Frima Fox Hofrichter, Pratt Institute; and Moira Roth, Mills College
2010 Griselda Pollock
Jury: Lowery Stokes Sims, Museum of Arts and Design, chair; Diane Burko, professor emerita, Philadelphia Community College; and Moira Roth, Mills College
2009 Guerrilla Girls
Jury: Lowery Stokes Sims, Museum of Arts and Design, chair; Diane Burko, Philadelphia Community College; and Moira Roth, Mills College
CWA Annual Recognition Awards
From 1996 to 2008, the Committee on Women in the Arts presented Annual Recognition Awards during a ceremony at the CAA Annual Conference. At its October 2007 meeting, the CAA Board of Directors voted to establish a twelfth Award for Distinction, the Distinguished Feminist Award, which honors a person who, through his or her art, scholarship, or advocacy, has advanced the cause of equality for women in the arts. The Distinguished Feminist Award replaces the committee’s Annual Recognition Award.
2008 Amalia Mesa-Bains and Celia Álvarez Muñoz
2007 Judith Brodsky and Ferris Olin
2006 Moira Roth and Trinh T. Minh-ha
2005 Beverly Buchanan and Lowery Stokes Sims
2004 Betye Saar and Nancy Spero
2003 Elizabeth Catlett and June Wayne
2002 Janet Cox-Rearick and Jaune Quick-To-See Smith
2001 Elsa Honig Fine
2000 Carolee Schneemann, Mary Garrard, and Norma Broude
1999 Samella Lewis
1998 Linda Nochlin
1997 Louise Bourgeouis
1996 Agnes Gund