Announcing 2026 James A. Porter & David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History
April 22, 2026
The Driskell Center Announces the 2026 James A. Porter & David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEWS RELEASE
Date: March 20, 2026
Contact: Abby Eron
Title: Assistant Director, Exhibitions & Programs
Phone: 301-405-6835
Email: events-driskellcenter@umd.edu
The Driskell Center Announces the 2026 James A. Porter & David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History
College Park, Md. – The David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park announces Jennifer Farrell, Leslie King Hammond, Patrick Murphy, and Edward Saywell as the combined winners of this year’s James A. Porter & David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History, for their co-edited/-authored book, John Wilson: Witnessing Humanity (MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2025).
The annual award recognizes outstanding scholarship in African American art history. Following an open call for nominations, a jury of scholars selected a group of finalists from a competitive pool. This year, four finalist publications were reviewed and discussed in depth before the jury selected John Wilson: Witnessing Humanity as the award recipient.
The catalog illuminates the more than seven-decade career of this trailblazing artist, tracing his work as a draftsman, painter, printmaker, and sculptor, and underscoring his enduring significance to African American artistic traditions and broader narratives of social realism. Jurors praised the publication’s depth and impact. One described the catalog as “a tour-de-force,” noting its “deep respect for Wilson’s historical and local contexts” and emphasizing that “while the museums are the exhibition’s hosts, they do not hold sole authority for contextualizing why Wilson matters—this really belongs to history and the wider community.”
As described by the catalog’s distributor Artbook, Distributed Art Publishers, Inc. (D.A.P.): “The first major retrospective of the artist’s work, Witnessing Humanity sheds light on Wilson’s life and artistic evolution. Reproductions of artworks and photographs accompany critical essays and personal reflections by art historians, Wilson’s peers, and fellow creatives, as well as a full chronology of the artist’s life. The varied voices which resonate through this catalogue illustrate that it is long past time to recognize Wilson’s art—to celebrate his lifelong dedication to depicting what he described as the ‘reality of being Black in this impossible world.’”
The award was presented at the 2026 Annual David C. Driskell Distinguished Lecture on Thursday, March 26, 2026. Congratulations to all of the contributors and to this year’s outstanding finalists.
ABOUT THE DRISKELL CENTER
The Driskell Center is a creative incubator at the University of Maryland dedicated to a world where Black artists exist at its center. We invite inquiry, experimentation and dialogue to reexamine histories and shape shared futures.
Admission to the gallery and all events is always free. For more information and to plan your visit see our website at https://driskellcenter.umd.edu/visit.
ABOUT THE JAMES A. PORTER & DAVID C. DRISKELL BOOK AWARD
In March 2013, the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland established the James A. Porter & David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History. This award, which honors Professors Driskell and Porter’s legacies in the field of African American art, was created for the purpose of encouraging original research and scholarly writing on historical subjects pertaining to African American visual culture.
Previous winners of the James A. Porter & David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History include Bridget R. Cooks, Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum (Massachusetts University Press, 2011), Christa Clarke, African Art in the Barnes Foundation: The Triumph of L'Art nègre and the Harlem Renaissance (Barnes Foundation/ Skira Rizzoli, 2015), Shawnya L. Harris, Expanding Tradition: Selections from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection (Georgia Museum of Art, 2017), Wil Haygood, I Too Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100 (Columbus Museum of Art/ Rizzoli, 2018), Adrienne Childs, Riffs and Relations: African American Artists and the European Modernist Tradition (Phillips Collection/ Rizzoli, 2020), Huey Copeland and Steven Nelson, eds., Black Modernisms in the Transatlantic World (National Gallery of Art/ Yale University Press, 2023), and Lisa Gail Collins, Stitching Love and Loss: A Gee’s Bend Quilt (University of Washington Press, 2023).
ABOUT DAVID C. DRISKELL
Trained as a painter and art historian, David C. Driskell worked primarily in collage and mixed media. Driskell maintained an active career as a practicing artist, teacher, curator, collector, art administrator, and art consultant for more than 60 years. He lectured across the globe, and his works are included in major collections of art museums throughout the world. Professor Driskell authored five exhibition catalogues on the subject of African American art. He was the recipient of numerous fellowships, awards, and prizes, including three Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships and a Harmon Foundation Fellowship. In 2000, he received the National Humanities Medal from President Clinton. In 2005, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA established the David C. Driskell Prize, the first national award to honor contributions to the field of African American art and art history.
For media inquiries, please contact Sarah Snyder at ssnyder3@umd.edu.
Image credit: Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston