2024 Driskell Prize Recipient Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and chief curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, N.Y. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

Gala guests included High Museum of Art Director Randall Suffolk,
curator Valerie Cassel Oliver, photographer Tyler Mitchell, designer Sergio Hudson, artist Ebony G. Patterson, and gallerist Monique Meloche

ATLANTA, GA., PLAYED HOST to the art world on April 26, when the High Museum of Art celebrated 2024 David C. Driskell Prize recipient Naomi Beckwith. The Driskell Prize recognizes exceptional contributions to the field of African American art. The 19th recipient of the prestigious honor, Beckwith is deputy director and chief curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Sunda and G. Scott Uzzell, Nike vice president and general manager for North America, chaired the Driskell Prize gala. The evening featured a seated dinner, remarks, and the annual event’s first-ever afterparty.

More then 250 guests attended the gala, according to the High Museum. Guests included High Museum Director Randall Suffolk; Raphael Bostic, president and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Camille Love, Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs; Phillana Williams, director, Mayor’s Office of Film & Entertainment; and Nickol Hackett, chief investment officer and treasurer, Joyce Foundation, Chicago, Ill.

Patrons mixed with artists and curators, Atlanta-born photographer Tyler Mitchell; Atlanta artists Charly Palmer and Fahamu Pecou; artist Genevieve Gaignard; and Lauren Haynes, head curator and vice president of arts and culture, Governors Island, New York, N.Y., among them. Previous recipients of the Driskell Prize were also in attendance, including Valerie Cassel Oliver (2011), curator of modern and contemporary art, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Va.; Naima Keith (2017), vice president of education and public programming, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and artist Ebony G. Patterson (2023).

“…It’s wonderful always to be admired by peers or acknowledged by peers, whoever they may be in the field,” Beckwith said in a High Museum video made on the occasion of the Driskell Prize. “So you sit and you go to the dinners, and it’s all—it’s all quite lovely. But when you understand that your people see you, that is the biggest honor.”

Sergio Hudson designed Beckwith’s gown. The jewel-toned look with a long flowing, pleated skirt is featured in the designer’s recent Collection 12.

Proceeds from the gala benefited the David C. Driskell African American Art Acquisition Restricted and Endowment funds, the High Museum said, and over the years have helped add 52 works by African American artists to the museum’s collection. CT

FIND MORE about the David C. Driskell Prize

FIND MORE about David C. Driskell and the Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park

From left, Sunda Uzzell, Naomi Beckwith, and Scott Uzzell. The Uzzells chaired the 19th Annual David C. Driskell Prize Gala. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

From left, 2024 Driskell Prize Recipient Naomi Beckwith and Randall Suffolk, director of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Ga. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

Kent Kelley and Tamara Kelley, members of host committee for the Driskell Prize Gala. Kent Kelley is a member of the High Museum of Art’s board of directors. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

Charlene Crusoe-Ingram and Earnest Ingram, members of host committee for the Driskell Prize Gala. Crusoe-Ingram is nominating vice chair of the High Museum of Art’s board of directors. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

From left, 2024 Driskell Prize Recipient Naomi Beckwith with hosts of the gala. From left, Nikki Crump, Sunda Uzzell, Naomi Beckwith, Charlene Crusoe-Ingram, Robyn Wallace, and Louise Sams. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

Robyn and Zak Wallace, members of host committee for the Driskell Prize Gala. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

Karen Comer-Lowe, curator in residence at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art; and Artist and chef Leslie Parks Bailey, wife of late artist Radcliffe Bailey and daughter of late artist Gordon Parks. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

High Museum of Art Director Randall Suffolk and photographer Tyler Mitchell. “Tyler Mitchell: Idyllic Space” opens at the High Museum of Art on June 21. | Courtesy The High Museum of Art

Mike Jackson and Egypt Sherrod, stars of the Atlanta-based HGTV series “Married to Real Estate.” | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

2024 Driskell Prize Recipient Naomi Beckwith and Sergio Hudson, who designed Beckwith’s gala gown. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

South Carolina-born, Sergio Hudson is based in Los Angeles. Hudson won Bravo TV’s “Styled to Rock” in 2013, established his eponymous label in 2014, relaunched it in 2016, and debuted at New York Fashion Week in 2020. His clothes are made in the USA. Hudson’s clients include many prominent figures in the music industry, Hollywood, and politics, including former First Lady Michell Obama, Vice President Kamala Harris, and First Lady Jill Biden, who wore a cobalt blue gown by Hudson to the White House State Dinner honoring Kenyan President William Ruto on May 23.

From left, Chicago gallerist Monique Meloche and 2023 Driskell Prize Recipient Ebony Patterson, who is represented by Monique Meloche. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

From left, DJ Princess Cut and Killer Mike, aka Mike Render, High Museum of Art board member. DJ Princess Cut provided music for the Driskell Prize gala’s first-ever after party. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

Photographer Tyler Mitchell and 2024 Driskell Prize Recipient Naomi Beckwith. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

From left, 2011 Driskell Prize Recipient Valerie Cassel Oliver, curator of modern and contemporary art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and 2024 Driskell Prize Recipient Naomi Beckwith. Cassel Oliver and Beckwith co-curated the landmark traveling survey “Howardena Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen.” | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

2024 Driskell Prizer Recipient Naomi Beckwith making remarks at the gala. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

2024 Driskell Prizer Recipient Naomi Beckwith, holding her award, with High Museum Director Randall Suffolk. | Photo by Rafterman, Courtesy The High Museum of Art

BOOKSHELF
Naomi Beckwith has published many volumes. Key among them, she co-authored the exhibition catalogs “Howardena Pindell: What Remains To Be Seen” and “Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Any Number of Preoccupations,” and co-edited “The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now.” Beckwith also edited the catalog for Duro Olowu’s MCA Chicago exhibition “Seeing Chicago” and co-edited the exhibition catalog “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America (from Civil Rights to Black Lives Matter).” She has also contributed to several other volumes, including “Lorna Simpson: Revised & Expanded Edition” (Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series) and “Radical Presence: Black Performance in Contemporary Art.”