Arts Club of Washington
The Arts Club of Washington is a club to promote the Arts in Washington, D.C.. Founded in May 1916, its first president was Henry Kirke Bush-Brown. It is located at the Cleveland Abbe House. Since 2006, the Club has awarded the Marfield Prize, also known as the National Award for Arts Writing, for nonfiction books about the arts written for a broad audience.
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The Marfield Prize, National Award for Arts Writing
The Marfield Prize, also known as the National Award for Arts Writing, is given annually by the Arts Club of Washington to nonfiction books about the arts written for a broad audience. Intended to help increase access to the arts, the Prize "celebrates prose that is lucid, luminous, clear, and inspiring—writing that creates a strong connection with arts and artists."[1]
The Prize of $10,000, which the Club asserts is the only one of its kind in the country, honors nonfiction books first published in the U.S., by a single author who is living at the time of the book’s nomination. First given in 2006, the prize’s endowment was established by long-time Arts Club member Jeannie S. Marfield in honor of Florence Berryman and Helen Wharton.[2]
The award is given to the author of a nonfiction book about any artistic discipline (visual, literary, performing, or media arts, as well as cross-disciplinary works. Works of art history and criticism, biographies and memoirs, and essays are all eligible. Anthologies, creative works of fiction or poetry, books for children, exhibition catalogs and self-published books are not eligible.[1]
History and past winners
Members of the club noticed that there was a lack of "good, accessible writing about the arts," according to former award administrator Sarah Browning. Club members decided to use a bequest by longtime member Jeannie S. Marfield to remedy the situation.[2] In addition to the annual winners, the Club publishes the names of several finalists.
- 2006 Scott Reynolds Nelson for Steel Drivin’ Man: John Henry, The Untold Story of an American Legend.
- 2007 Jenny Uglow for Nature’s Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick.
- 2008 Michael Sragow for Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master and Brenda Wineapple for White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Anchor Books).
- 2009 Linda Gordon for Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits.
- 2010 R. Tripp Evans for Grant Wood: A Life.[3]
- 2011 Yaël Tamar Lewin[4] for Night’s Dancer: The Life of Janet Collins (Wesleyan University Press, 2011).[5]
- 2012 Anne-Marie O’Connor for The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.
- 2013 Sherill Tippins for Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New York’s Legendary Chelsea Hotel (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 2013).
References
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- ↑ Yael Tamar Lewin (Author of Night's Dancer)
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