ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, NY.- The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) is presenting its thirteenth annual Award for Curatorial Excellence to curator, writer, and activist Lucy Lippard. For more than four decades, Lippard’s insightful, timely, and at times radical curatorial and critical endeavors have made a profound and resonant impact on our understanding of the art of our time. From her pioneering early support of conceptual artists such as Sol LeWitt and Lawrence Weiner, and her advocacy of feminist art, to her groundbreaking work as a writer and critic, Lippard’s contributions to the field of contemporary art are countless.

The formal presentation of the award by artist Hans Haacke will be made at a gala dinner on April 7, 2010, at Gotham Hall.

Each year the Center for Curatorial Studies celebrates the individual achievements of a leading curator or curators whose lasting contributions have shaped the way we conceive of exhibition-making today. The awardee is selected by an independent panel of leading contemporary art curators, museum directors, and artists. Past recipients include Harald Szeemann (1998), Marcia Tucker (1999), Kasper König (2000), Paul Schimmel (2001), Suzanne Ghez (2002), Kynaston McShine (2003), Walter Hopps (2004), Kathy Halbreich and Mari Carmen Ramírez (2005), Lynne Cooke and Vasif Kortun (2006), Alanna Heiss (2007), Catherine David (2008), and Okwui Enwezor (2009). This award reflects CCS Bard’s commitment to recognizing individuals who have defined new thinking, bold vision, and dedicated service to the field of exhibition practice.

Lucy Lippard is a curator, writer, activist, and author of 20 books on contemporary art and cultural criticism, including one novel. She has curated some 50 exhibitions in the United States, Europe, and Latin America, and her arts activities have extended into performances, comics, and street theater. For 30 years she has worked with artists’ groups such as the Artworkers’ Coalition, Ad Hoc Women Artists, Artists Meeting for Cultural Change, Alliance for Cultural Democracy (for which she served as coeditor of “How to ’92: Model Actions for a Post-Columbian World”), and WAC (Women’s Action Coalition). She was a cofounder of Printed Matter; The Heresies Collective and its journal; PADD (Political Art Documentation/Distribution) and its journal Upfront; and Artists Call Against U.S. Intervention in Central America. She continues to write and lecture frequently at museums and universities. She has served as a member of the Santa Fe County Open Land and Trails Planning and Advisory Committee; is a member of the Galisteo Community Planning Committee; edits her community newsletter El Puente de Galisteo; and is on the Santa Fe Railyard Park Design Committee with the Trust for Public Land.