http://www.aarweb.org/Programs/Awards/Arts_Award/default.asp
Religion and the Arts Award
The AAR award in Religion and the Arts is presented annually to an artist, performer, critic, curator, or scholar who has made a recent significant contribution to the understanding of the relations among the arts and religions, both for the academy and for a broader public.
Nominations
Application Process
We will be accepting nominations from AAR members, though nominees need not be AAR members. Nominations must include a supporting letter (no more than 1000 words), and any relevant supporting materials (images, DVDs, books, catalogs, etc.). Please, no self-nominations.
To be considered for the 2009 award, nominations must be made by March 30, 2009, and sent to Brent Plate, Dept of Religious Studies, 198 College Hill Road, Clinton, NY 13323. Electronic submissions can be sent to: splate@hamilton.edu.
Selection
The task force for the Religion and the Arts Award includes Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Norman Girardot, Sally M. Promey, and is chaired by S. Brent Plate. The Award will be presented before the Presidential Address at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion. The award recipient also will be featured at a Special Topics Forum.
Winners
| 2008 | Betye and Alison Saar. In multiple media, prints, collage, assemblage, sculpture, and installation, Betye Saar (b. 1926) and Alison Saar (b. 1956) push
the boundaries and categories of art and religion. With works in the collections of the finest arts institutions and museums, the two have been hailed as "conjure women of the arts." Each one practices a synthetic art, creating material shape for persistent spiritual and cultural questions of identity, ethnicity, race, religion, and gender. Betye Saar's Liberation of Aunt Jemima (1972) has acquired virtual iconic status. The shrines and altars she creates explore mysticism and vodou as well as racial and sexual politics. Alison Saar's installations, objects, and sculptures pursue relations among spiritualities in African cultural diaspora. Each one of these women might be justifiably hailed as an insider artist for persuasively, creatively bringing personal encounters with visionary, vernacular, and "outsider" arts of many cultures to public attention. |
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| 2007 | Bill Viola, pioneering video artist whose internationally exhibited work explores universal human experiences--birth, death, the unfolding of consciousness--and has its roots in religious traditions including Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and Christian mysticism. |