The McKnight Foundation invites nominations for its 13th Distinguished Artist Award, which recognizes individual artists with enduring and exceptional careers in Minnesota. Nominations for the $50,000 award are due March 31.
The award honors one artist each year for his or her substantial impact on the arts in Minnesota over a lifetime. The chief selection criteria is the quality of the nominee’s work. Other considerations include the artist’s commitment to his or her field, and ways the artist has enriched life for audiences and the community.
McKnight president Kate Wolford notes that, although the award celebrates one individual’s career, it also “celebrates the achievements of the entire family of Minnesota artists who have built — one performance, poem, and painting at a time — the robust and resilient arts community we all cherish.”
Artists in all disciplines are eligible for nomination but may not apply for the award themselves. Although nominees must have worked in Minnesota much of their lives, they need not reside in Minnesota when nominated.
The recipient will be announced mid-year. Candidates not selected this year will be considered again in subsequent years.
Previous awardees are:
- 2009: Bain Boehlke, theater artist
- 2008: Bill Holm, writer
- 2007: Kinji Akagawa, sculptor
- 2006: Lou Bellamy, theater artist
- 2005: Judy Onofrio, sculptor
- 2004: Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, conductor and composer
- 2003: Mike Lynch, visual artist
- 2002: Emilie Buchwald, writer, editor and publisher
- 2001: Dale Warland, choral music conductor and composer
- 2000: Robert Bly, poet, translator, writer and editor
- 1999: Warren MacKenzie, potter
- 1998: Dominick Argento, composer
For more information about the award, please visit the arts program section of the McKnight website, or call the Foundation at 612-333-4220.
