2007 Visionary Woman Awards

Moore College of Art & Design's honored Visionary Woman Award Recipients:
        Dr. Amalia Mesa-Bains
        Dr. Elizabeth A. Sackler

The 5th annual Visionary Woman Awards were presented at a benefit gala dinner on Tuesday, September 25th at 6pm. This year, Moore honored artist, educator and arts activist Dr. Amalia Mesa-Bains and public historian and educator Dr. Elizabeth A. Sackler. The Visionary Woman Awards celebrate exceptional women who have made significant contributions to the arts and are national leaders in their fields.

Dr. Amalia Mesa-Bains is a California-based artist, curator and writer who has been associated with a number of pioneering exhibitions of Latino art, such as Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation and Mi Alma, Mi Terra, Mi Gente: Contemporary Chicana Art. Her powerful work incorporates various aspects of Chicano/a history, culture and folk traditions and explores religion, ritual, Chicana history, and female rites of passage and the role each plays in the development of the Latina psyche. She is the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Service to the Field Award from the Association of Hispanic Artists.


Dr. Elizabeth A. Sackler is the President and CEO of the Arthur M. Sackler Foundation and the founding president of the Friends of the Freer and Sackler Galleries of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. As President of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Foundation, Dr. Sackler is responsible for the gift of Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party to the Brooklyn Museum in 2002, where it will be permanently installed in the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art scheduled to open in March 2007. She has served on the National Advisory Board of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, as well as the Board of the Brooklyn Museum.

With a Ph.D. in public history, Dr. Sackler has been active in repatriating Native American ritual objects and founded the Repatriation Foundation in New York City in 1991. Part of the Foundation's mission is to create a code of ethics for the art market and to encourage a distinction between what is and is not appropriate for sale.

In conjunction with the Visionary Woman Awards, Moore offered the following free public events:
Monday, September 24, 3:30 - 4:30pm
A Conversation with Dr. Amalia Mesa-Bains, Dr. Carmen Febo-San Miguel, Executive Director of Taller Puertorriqueno and Moore’s own Dr. Janet Kaplan.
Fox Commons, Moore College of Art & Design

Tuesday, September 25, 2:00 - 3:30pm
Elizabeth Greenfield Zeidman Lecture 
A panel discussion and lecture with the two award recipients: Dr. Amalia Mesa Bains and Dr. Elizabeth A. Sackler. Moderated by WHYY's Tracey Matisak
Stewart Auditorium, Moore College of Art & Design

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