Event | Paul Beatty, Phil Gilbert, and Carolee Schneemann to be Honored at 2018 Hall of Fame Benefit

The event recognizes the sustained achievements of artists who received early career support from NYFA, and the vision and commitment of enlightened arts patrons.

The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) will celebrate the induction of three arts leaders into the NYFA Hall of Fame during its annual benefit on Thursday, April 12, 2018, at Capitale, 130 Bowery, New York, NY 10013. The event recognizes visual, literary, and performing artists who have received NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowships and have had a profound impact on the arts through their creative work, and patrons of the arts who have championed the value of the arts in the world around us. The evening’s honorees are:

• Paul Beatty (Fellow in Poetry ‘93): Novelist and Poet
• Phil Gilbert: Patron of the Arts and General Manager of Design, IBM
• Carolee Schneemann (Fellow in Performance/Multidisciplinary ‘87): Visual Artist

The glamorous ticketed event will feature cocktails, dinner, and a silent auction of art, experiences, and more. Carmelita Tropicana (NYFA Board Member and Fellow in Performance/Multidisciplinary ’87 and Playwriting/Screenwriting ’91, ’06) will serve as the event emcee. All tickets come with a signed, limited-edition print by Carolee Schneemann created exclusively for the event. Attire is festive cocktail.

On the inductees, feminist visual arts advocate and NYFA Board Chair Judith K. Brodsky said: “NYFA is honoring three brilliant, creative people: Paul Beatty, whose multi-layered humor and biting social commentary has solidified his status as a truly original voice in contemporary literature; Phil Gilbert, arts supporter and one of the first to lead a groundbreaking effort to apply design thinking in a business setting; and Carolee Schneemann, whose prolific output of work may be among the most significant of the feminist art canon.”  

The event recognizes the sustained achievements of artists who received early career support from NYFA, and the vision and commitment of enlightened patrons of the arts. Past NYFA Hall of Fame Inductees include Ida Applebroog, James Casebere, Christopher d’Amboise, Anna Deavere Smith, Zhou Long, Christian Marclay, Terry McMillan, Mira Nair, Lynn Nottage, Eric Overmyer, Suzan-Lori Parks, Wendy Perron, Dwight Rhoden, Faith Ringgold, and Andres Serrano.

Beatty and Schneemann are past recipients of the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship, which are individual unrestricted grants made to artists who are living and working in New York State. These fellowships are not project grants, but are intended to fund an artist’s vision regardless of the level of their artistic development.

“For over 30 years, the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship program has provided more than $30 million in unrestricted cash grants to artists of all disciplines,” said Michael L. Royce, Executive Director, NYFA. “In addition to the financial support, the Fellowship often serves as a validation of the artists’ voice or vision. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to bring these artists back to NYFA and honor their significant cultural contributions,” he added.

NYFA is proud to present this year’s honorees and celebrate their impact in the cultural community:

Paul Beatty is the author of the novels Tuff (Anchor 1998), Slumberland (Bloomsbury USA 2008), and The White Boy Shuffle (Picador 1996), and the poetry collections Big Bank Take Little Bank (Nuyorican Poets Café Press 1991) and Joker, Joker, Deuce (Penguin 1994). He was the editor of Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor (Bloomsbury USA 2006). In 2016, he became the first American to win the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2015). In 2017, he was the winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award. He lives in New York City.

Phil Gilbert, Patron of the Arts, is a recognized leader in the technology industry who has led the IBM design program since 2012, spearheading a broader transformation of how the company’s teams understand and solve complex problems. The program is based on two principles: adding formally-trained designers into IBM at an unprecedented scale, and reskilling its global workforce in design thinking and agile practices. Previously, Gilbert led the Business Process Management segment for IBM, where he drove the simplification of its portfolio and the ease-of-use of its products. He joined IBM in 2010 via the acquisition of Lombardi Software, where he was President. Gilbert has been awarded multiple patents across his career and is a thought-leader on topics of portfolio and software design, design governance, strategy, and culture. He has most recently been called upon to advocate before the U.S. Congress for a new “Digital Americans with Disabilities Act.” He lives in Austin, Texas.

Carolee Schneemann is one of the most influential artists of the second part of the 20th century. Her pioneering investigations into subjectivity, the social construction of the female body, and the cultural biases of art history have had significant influence on subsequent generations of artists. Recent honors include receiving the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale in 2017, and being celebrated with a career retrospective at MoMA PS1 (on through March 11). Schneemann’s painting, photography, performance, and installation work has been exhibited at venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Whitney Museum of American Art; and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. Her work has been screened as part of film and video retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art; National Film Theatre, London; and San Francisco Cinematheque. She has taught at many institutions including New York University, California Institute of the Arts, Bard College, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Smith College. Schneemann has also published widely, authoring books including More than Meat Joy: Complete Performance Works and Selected Writings (McPherson & Co 1979); Correspondence Course: An Epistolary History of Carolee Schneemann and Her Circle, edited by Kristine Stiles (Duke University Press Books 2010); and the soon-to-be published Carolee Schneemann: Uncollected Texts (Primary Information 2018).

Ticket prices start at $650 and Tables at $6,500. For more information and to purchase tickets to the 2018 Hall of Fame Benefit, please visit nyfa.org or contact Barbara Toy at [email protected] or 212.366.6900 x 207.

Legends Limousine, a family-owned car service based in Park Slope, Brooklyn, is NYFA’s transportation partner for the 2018 NYFA Hall of Fame Benefit.

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Images L to R: Paul Beatty (Fellow in Poetry ‘93), Photo Credit: Hannah Assouline; Phil Gilbert – Patron of the Arts, Photo Courtesy: IBM; and Carolee Schneemann (Fellow in Performance/Multidisciplinary ‘87) in Salzburg, 2015, Photo Credit: Andy Archer