Driskell Center Announces First Recipient Of James A. Porter And David C. Driskell Book Award
March 26, 2013
The Driskell Center announces Bridget R. Cooks as the recipient of the first James A. Porter and David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History.
The David C. Driskell Center has announced that Bridget R. Cooks, Ph.D., will be the recipient of the first James A. Porter and David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History for her work, "Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum."
Cooks, an associate professor of Art History and African American Studies at the University of California, Irvine, is being awarded for her original research and scholarly writing done on historical subjects in relation to African American visual culture.
The book, published in 2011, analyzes the strategies and challenges of important exhibitions of African American art, as well as how they were received.
Cooks is the Director of UC Irvine’s Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies, and involved with the Ph.D. Program in Culture and Theory.
The award includes an honorarium of $500 and will be presented at The 12th Annual David C. Driskell Distinguished Lecture, on Thursday April 11, 2013.
The book award, which will be given annually, honors the legacy of Prof. James Amos Porter (December 22, 1905 - February 28, 1970), a pioneer in establishing the field of African American art history, and his successor, Prof. David C. Driskell (b. 1931), the most important scholar in the field of African American art and an artist working today. It recognizes their legacy in the field of African American art and the contribution that African American artists have made to the American art canon.