Achievement Awards — ATADA.org

ATADA Lifetime Achievement Awards

The ATADA Lifetime Achievement Awards recognize and celebrate the outstanding accomplishments and contributions of people whose work has been both groundbreaking and instrumental to the fields of American Indian and Tribal Arts.  A donation will be made in each honoree’s name to an American Indian and/or Tribal Art-related entity of his/her choosing.

The Lifetime Achievement Award recipients were chosen from a list of nominees generated by the ATADA membership and the board of directors; honorees were chosen from that list by the board.  Past honorees include Francis H. Harlow (Pueblo pottery scholar, author, and collector), Lauris and Jim Phillips (art dealers and collectors), and Eugene K. Thaw (art dealer, collector, patron, and museum benefactor).

ATADA Foundation President, Bob Bauver, was the first to propose honoring individuals who have made long-term contributions to studying and collecting American Indian and Tribal arts.  Former ATADA President, Tom Murray, believes these awards are “the equivalent in our field to the MacArthur Genius Award or the Nobel Prize.”

  • Bill Holm: Northwest Coast Art scholar, author, researcher, and artist.

    Dextra Quotskuyva: Hopi potter, matriarch of living Nampeyo of Hano descendants.

    James Willis: Tribal Art dealer, collector, scholar. Recently served on President Obama’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee.

  • Francis H. Harlow: Theoretical physicist, Pueblo pottery collector, scholar, author

    Lauris and Jim Phillips: Southwest art collectors, legendary Southwest jewelry dealers

    Eugene V. Thaw: Art dealer, art collector, art patron and benefactor

    Click here to learn more about the 2012 Honorees

  • Warren Robbins: Founder, National Museum of African Art

    Quintus and Mary Herron: Tribal Art Collection Donors to Idabell, OK through the Herron Foundation

    John and Anne Summerfield: Donors, Collection of Sumatran Minangkabau Textiles, to the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at UCLA

    Stuart Struever: Archeologist

    Martha Hopkins-Struever: American Indian Art dealer/collector