Late Dora Akunyili’s daughter, Njideka Akunyili Crosby is the 2015 winner of the tenth annual Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize.
The Studio Museum in Harlem made the announcement on Monday revealing that it was bestowing its Wein Prize – a $50,000 award won in the past by esteemed artists like Lorna Simpson, Glenn Ligon and Trenton Doyle Hancock – to the Nigerian-born painter who has lived and worked in the United States for many years.
The prestigious award was established by jazz impresario and philanthropist George Wein in honor of his late wife Joyce Alexander Wein, a long-serving trustee of the Studio Museum.
Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden said in a museum press release that Njideka’s works embodies the ideals of innovation and promise that were so important to Joyce Alexander Wein.
Alexander Wein was a jazz columnist for the Simmons College newspaper when she met her future husband, a jazz pianist, who founded a series of music festivals that continue to thrive. After establishing a career as a chemist, she dedicated herself to expanding the couple’s portfolio of jazz and folk festivals. An influential patron of the arts, she founded the New York coalition of 100 Black Women and was an avid collector of African American art, assembling an extensive collection over the years.
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