The Smithsonian American Art Museum announced
on April 27, 2006, that it was awarding the 2006 Lucelia Artist
Award to Matthew Coolidge, Director of the Center for Land Use
Interpretation.
“I am honored to accept the Lucelia Artist Award on behalf of
all of us at the Center for Land Use Interpretation,” said Coolidge.
“It is especially meaningful for us to be recognized by the Smithsonian
Institution, a venerable colleague in the quest to understand
and describe the American Land.” The Lucelia Artist Award, established in 2001, annually recognizes
an American artist under the age of 50 who demonstrates exceptional
creativity and has produced a significant body of artwork that
is considered emblematic of this period in contemporary art.
Jurors nominate artists who will be recognized as one of the
most important artists of his or her time. “Viewed historically, Coolidge and the Center continue a long
tradition of attention to the American landscape that encompasses
the great Hudson River school painters, Ansel Adams’s photographs
and Robert Smithson’s earthwork projects,” the jurors said in
a statement. |
