The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize or Gish Prize is given annually to "a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind's enjoyment and understanding of life."
It is among the most prestigious and one of the
richest prizes in the American arts. The 2024 award was for over $450,000.
The founders
Dorothy Gish (1898–1968) and
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish (October 14, 1893 – February 27, 1993) was an American actress best known for her work in movies of the silent era. Her film-acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912, in silent film shorts, to 1987. Gish was dubbed the "F ...
(1893–1993) were sisters, famous as actresses from the silent era of film and mid-century theatre. About the prize, established in Lillian Gish's will, she said: "It is my desire, by establishing this prize, to give recipients of the prize the recognition they deserve, to bring attention to their contributions to society and encourage others to follow in their path."
[ It was established in 1994 by the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize Trust and is administered by JPMorgan Chase Bank.][
]
Recipients
Source:
*1994: Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry ( ; ; born February 28, 1929) is a Canadian-American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions.
Gehry rose to prominence in th ...
, architect
*1995: Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, his films have been described as "profoun ...
, film director
*1996: Robert Wilson, artist and director
*1997: Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
, singer, songwriter
*1998: Isabel Allende, author
*1999: Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are '' All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
, author and playwright
*2000: Merce Cunningham
Mercier Philip "Merce" Cunningham (April 16, 1919 – July 26, 2009) was an American dancer and choreographer who was at the forefront of American modern dance for more than 50 years. He frequently collaborated with artists of other discipl ...
, dancer and choreographer
*2001: Jennifer Tipton, lighting designer
*2002: Lloyd Richards, theater director
*2003: Bill T. Jones
William Tass Jones, known as Bill T. Jones (born February 15, 1952), is an American Choreography, choreographer, director, author and dancer. He is the co-founder of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The company's home in Manhattan. J ...
, dancer and choreographer
*2004: Ornette Coleman
Randolph Denard Ornette Coleman (March 9, 1930 – June 11, 2015) was an American jazz saxophonist, trumpeter, violinist, and composer. He is best known as a principal founder of the free jazz genre, a term derived from his 1960 album '' Free Ja ...
, jazz innovator
*2005: Peter Sellars, theater, opera and festival director
*2006: Shirin Neshat, filmmaker
*2007: Laurie Anderson
Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is an American avant-garde artist, musician and filmmaker whose work encompasses performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting,Amirkhanian, Cha ...
, artist
*2008: Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford Jr. (born August 18, 1936) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has received numerous accolades such as an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards, as well as the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1994, the ...
, actor
*2009: Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...
, musician
*2010: Chinua Achebe, writer
*2011: Trisha Brown, dancer, choreographer and artistic director
*2012: Anna Deavere Smith, author, actor, educator
*2013: Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...
, director, producer, writer, teacher
*2014: Maya Lin, artist, architect
*2015: Suzan-Lori Parks, playwright, screenwriterMeredith Monk
Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recordi ...
, composer, singer, director, choreographer
*2018: Gustavo Dudamel, violinist, conductor, music director
*2019: Walter Hood
Walter J. Hood (born 1958) is an American designer, artist, academic administrator, and educator. He is professor of landscape architecture & environmental planning and urban design and chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environm ...
, artist, designer, urbanist
*2020: Ava DuVernay, filmmaker
*2021: Sonia Sanchez, poet
*2022: Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, dancer and choreographer
*2023: Thelma Golden, Museum Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlemhula
Hula () is a Hawaiian dance form expressing chant (''oli'') or song (Mele (Hawaiian language), ''mele''). It was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Native Hawaiians who settled there. The hula dramatizes or portrays the words of the oli ...
(master teacher)
Notes
External links
The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize
official website.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gish Prize
Awards established in 1994
Arts awards in the United States
Literary awards honoring writers
Lillian Gish
1994 establishments in the United States