Print Email

News & Events

Supporters of the Foundation

Thanks to the continued generosity of the Leon Levy Foundation, some Fellows with no academic or institutional affiliation receive supplemental funding as part of their Guggenheim Fellowship to help cover the costs of their research or artistic endeavors, and their living expenses.

Mr. Levy, a pioneer in the creation of both mutual funds and hedge funds, was a humanist with a passion for expanding knowledge. He was an active and generous trustee of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation from 1990 to 2003. For more information please visit the Leon Levy Foundation.

In 2008 the Guggenheim Foundation added Constitutional Studies to its list of competition fields, thanks to a generous gift from the Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation. The inaugural Fellows in this new field are Randy E. Barnett, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at Georgetown University Law Center, and Richard Primus, a professor of law at the University of Michigan.

Twice a Fellow in the field of Organismic Biology and Ecology (1953 and 1977), Carl Gans wholeheartedly supported the Foundation throughout his career, “watch[ing] its affairs with pleasure and a sense of personal participation.” Spurred by his belief that the Foundation “clearly maintained an ongoing commitment to excellence and to innovation,” as he wrote then President Gordon Ray in 1985, he consistently contributed to the Foundation’s endowment and encouraged the most talented people he came across to apply for Guggenheim Fellowships.

Carl Gans was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1923 and came to the United States as a teenager, becoming a naturalized citizen in 1945. After serving in the Pacific theater during World War II, he trained as a mechanical engineer, receiving degrees in that field from New York University (B.ME., 1944) and Columbia University (M.S., 1950). However, he had a growing interest in herpetology and he credited his first Guggenheim Fellowship, received when he was just thirty years old, with giving him the essential encouragement and financial support to completely change the direction of his career. After his Fellowship term spent studying the taxonomy of South Brazilian snakes, he went on to Harvard University where he earned a Ph.D. in biology in 1957. He then served as a Professor of Biology and department chair at the University of Buffalo (1958-71) and as Professor of Biology and chair of the department of zoology at the University of Michigan, retiring as Emeritus Professor in 1998. Among his most notable publications are A Photographic Atlas of Shark Anatomy and Electromyography for Experimentalists, both of which are now standard texts in biology classes nationwide. He also edited the journal Morphology for twenty-five years as well as the 23-volume Biology of Reptilia.

Carl Gans died in November 2009. His generous bequest to the Foundation will fund four Fellowships in Organismic Biology and Ecology.

Howard Kaminsky, who received a Fellowship in History in 1976, has been a long-standing and openhanded supporter of the Foundation’s mission.

After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1952, Mr. Kaminsky taught history at Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and the University of Washington, before his appointment as a Professor of History at Florida International University in 1973. He is currently Professor Emeritus at FIU.

A specialist in medieval and religious history, Mr. Kaminsky is the author of A History of the Hussite Revolution (University of California Press, 1967) and Simon de Cramaud and the Great Schism (Rutgers UP, 1983), among many other monographs and scholarly articles.

Guggenheim Fellowship Awards in the United States and Canada, 2011

On April 7, 2011, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded 180 Fellowships to a diverse group of scholars, artists, and scientists in its eighty-seventh annual competition for the United States and Canada. Appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, the successful candidates were chosen from a group of almost 3,000 applicants.

Follow this link for a list of 2011 Fellows in the United States and Canada
Follow this link for a list of 2011 Fellows by field in the United States and Canada

Read the Press Release

Latin American and Caribbean Guggenheim Fellowship Awards, 2011

On June 9, 2011, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded thirty Fellowships to a diverse group of artists, scholars, and scientists from Latin America and the Caribbean. Chosen from almost 500 applicants, this year’s new Fellows are from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru.

Read the Press Release
View the list of 2011 Latin American and Caribbean Fellows by Field →

View the list of 2011 Latin American and Caribbean Fellows

2011 National Book Awards Finalists Announced

Among the twenty finalists for the National Book Award are three Guggenheim Fellows: Adrienne Rich (Poetry, 1952, 1959) was cited for Tonight No Poetry Will Serve and Carl Phillips (1997) was given the nod for Double Shadow. In nonfiction, The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt (English Literature, 1974) joined four other finalists in that category. The winners will be announced on November 16 at a ceremony in New York City hosted by John Lithgow.

2011 National Book Critics Circle Award

Five of the six winners of the 2011 NBCC awards are Guggenheim Fellows. Two Fellows in Fiction were honored—Jennifer Egan (1996) for A Visit from the Goon Squad and Darin Strauss (2006) for Half a Life; C. D. Wright, a Fellow in Poetry (1987), won for her volume One with Others: [a little book of her days]. Writing about poetry, Clare Cavanagh, who won her Fellowship in Slavic Literature (1998), received her NBCC award for Lyric Poetry and Modern Politics: Russia Poland, and the West. And Isabel Wilkerson was honored for The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration; she is a Fellow in General Nonfiction (1998).

2011 MacArthur "Genius" Award Winners Announced

Four Guggenheim Fellows are among the twenty-two winners of the MacArthur Foundation “genius” awards this year: Sarah Otto (Organismic Biology and Ecology, 2011), Kay Ryan (Poetry, 2004), Jacob Soll (Intellectual and Cultural History, 2009), and A. E. Stallings (Poetry, 2011). The MacArthur Foundation uses three criteria for selecting its Fellows: “exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.” The winners each receive $500,000 over the five-year term of their fellowships.

G. Thomas Tanselle, Fellow in Bibliography, 1969

The Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia has just issued Mr. Tanselle’s eighth monograph, Book-Jackets: Their History, Form, and Use. Illustrated with eight black-and-white and sixteen color plates, this work details the use of book-jackets as protective devices, advertising vehicles, and cultural expressions, to name a few of the topics covered, and presents a list of almost 1,900 extant pre-1900 book-jackets that Mr. Tanselle has been able to discover since he began this project in 1969, expertly remedying a long-standing deficiency in the study of the book arts. Mr. Tanselle is not only a Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, but served as its Vice President (1978-2006) and Secretary (1988-2006).

Ethelia Ruíz Medrano, Fellow in Iberian and Latin American History, 2006

The first printing of Mexico’s Indigenous Communities: Their Lands and Histories, 1500-2010, Ms. Ruíz Medrano’s ambitious study centered on the town of Santa María Cuquila, sold out in nine months—an extremely rare occurrence for an academic book—and has just been issued in paperback and as an ebook. In Indigenous Communities, she explores how community administrative and juridical procedures, essentially the same as when instituted six hundred years ago, coexist with such elements of twenty-first century culture as cell phones and texting, and how the past and present inform each other and shape the lives of these indigenous peoples. Translated by Russ Davidson and published by the University of Colorado Press (2010) in its Mesoamerican Worlds series, the book was described by R. Sullivan in his review for Choice as “essential” and a “deep, unique study” that will be “an indispensable resource for scholars interested in the survival and use of ancient manuscripts in postconquest Mexico.” Listen to an interview with Ethelia Ruíz Medrano.

John Ashbery, Fellow in Poetry, 1967, 1973

The National Book Foundation announced on October 4 that John Ashbery will be this year’s recipient of its Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Four Fellows in Fine Arts Receive 2011 Anonymous Was a Woman Awards

Artists Eleanor Antin (1997), Ann Hamilton (1989), Yoko Inoue (2006), and Mary Miss (1986) were among the ten winners of this year’s Anonymous Was a Woman awards. Winners of these $25,000 grants do not compete for the awards and are in fact completely unaware that they are being considered. The no-strings-attached awards are intended to support the work of women artists over 45 years of age at critical junctures in their careers.

Philip Levine, Fellow in Poetry, 1973, 1980

Mr. Levine has been named the 2011-12 Poet Laureate of the United States. He is the thirty-fifth Guggenheim Fellow in Poetry to be so honored. Follow this link to view a complete list of the thirty-five Guggenhem Fellows named Poet Laureate.

Nobel Prizes Awarded to Two Guggenheim Fellows

The roll of Nobel Prize-winning Guggenheim Fellows increased to 104 with the announcements of this year’s awards in chemistry and economics.

When the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was announced on October 6, Ei-ichi Negishi (Fellow in Chemistry, 1986) was one of the winners, sharing the prize with Richard F. Heck and Akira Suzuki for their development of palladium-catalyzed cross coupling, which will allow scientists to synthesize more complex molecules, including, as the award citation points out, “carbon-based molecules as complex as those created by nature itself.” It can have important applications in industries ranging from pharmaceuticals to electronics.

Mr. Negishi is currently the Herbert C. Brown Distinguished Professor in Organic Chemistry at Purdue University. Follow this link to view Mr. Negishi's faculty page on the Purdue University website.

Peter A. Diamond (Fellow in Economics, 1965, 1982) was among the three winners of this year’s Sveriges Riksbank Prized in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. He, Dale T. Mortensen, and Christopher A. Pissarides were cited for their analysis of markets with search frictions. According to the award announcement, “the laureates’ models help us understand the ways in which unemployment, job vacancies, and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy.” Since its establishment in 1969, the Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded to sixty-seven individuals, twenty-two of whom are Guggenheim Fellows.

Mr. Diamond, who is an Institute Professor and Professor of Economics at MIT, is also one of President Obama’s nominees for an appointment to the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors. Follow this link to read the notice about Mr. Diamond's Nobel Prize on the MIT website.

Fellows Elected to American Academy of Arts and Letters

Seven Guggenheim Fellows have been elected to 2011 class of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, joining the some four hundred Fellows who were inducted in previous years. Artists Walter De Maria (1969), Arlene Shechet (2004), and James Turrell (1974), novelist Michael Cunningham (1993), poet Rita Dove (1983), and composer Aaron Jay Kernis (1984), as well as Canadian poet Anne Carson (1998), who was elected a Foreign Honorary Member, will be inducted into the Academy by fellow Fellows J. D. McClatchy (1987), President of the Academy, and Rosanna Warren (1985), the Academy’s Secretary, during a ceremony in mid May.

Guggenheim Fellows elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2011

When the American Academy of Arts and Sciences announced its newest class of Fellows on April 19, twenty-five Guggenheim Fellows were among the honorees.

View a complete list of these Guggenheim Fellows

Follow this link to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences website to read the Press Release

Pulitzer Prizes, 2011

Four Guggenheim Fellows are among this year’s Pulitzer Prize winners: Jennifer Egan (Fiction, 1996) received a nod for her novel A Visit from the Goon Squad; Eric Foner (U.S. History, 1975) won for his study The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery; Zhou Long (Music Composition, 1994) was honored for his opera Madame White Snake, which he based on a Chinese folktale; and her collection The Best of It: New and Selected Poems earned former U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan (Poetry, 2004) this latest honor. In addition six Fellows were among the nominated finalists: Jonathan Dee (Fiction, 2011), Chang-rae Lee (Fiction, 2000), Stephanie McCurry (U.S. History, 2003), Jean Valentine (Poetry, 1976), Fred Lerdahl (Music Composition, 1974), and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon (Music Composition, 1995).

Transart Honors Guggenheim Fellows

On October 17, at its annual Jazz Treasures: Legacy, Legend & Heritage celebration, which “honor[s] those who continue to create the music and song of the people of the African diaspora,” Transart will recognize two Guggenheim Fellows: Robert O’Meally (Fellow in Biography, 1989) and Randy Weston (Fellow in Music Composition, 2011). Robert O’Meally, who received his Guggenheim Fellowship in 1989 for a biography of alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges, is the Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and the founder of the Center for Jazz Studies there. Randy Weston, an NEA Jazz Master and pianist, composer, and bandleader, will be honored as the 2011 Jazz Legend.

Fernando Prats, Fellow in Fine Arts, 2006

Chosen to represent his nation at the 54th Venice Biennale, Chilean artist Fernando Prats showed three separate works in that exhibition: Chaitén (2008), inspired by the largest volcanic eruption in Chile’s history; 03:34:17 (2010), so named for the exact time a horrifically devastating earthquake hit Chile in 2010; and his most recent work, Gran Sur (2011), an installation set in the Chilean Antarctic territory, which consisted of the text of Sir Ernest Shackelton’s advertisement for crew members to accompany him on his 1911 Antarctic expedition, rendered (in Spanish) in red neon letters set up across the snowy landscape: “Men wanted for hazardous journey, low wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honour and recognition in case of success.” Each of these works pays tribute to the human spirit unbowed by the fiercest of natural phenomena. In further recognition of his artistry, Chile’s Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes, in conjunction with several other cultural entities, underwrote the publication of Gran Sur (Ed. Polígrafa, 2011), which captures through archival materials and in its abundant and beautiful photographic illustrations the creation of each of these three works. Critical essays by Fernando Castro Flórez, Paul Ardenne, and Justo Pastor Mellado further illuminate Mr. Prats’ art.

John Hollenbeck, Fellow in Music Composition, 2007

John Hollenbeck’s composition Falling Men has been nominated for a Grammy Award for best instrumental composition. It is one of the ten mini-concertos he composed for Daniel Yvinec’s Orchestre National de Jazz CD Shut Up And Dance. The nominee and his Claudia Quintet will be back in New York City for performances at the Cornelia Street Café on December 16 and 17, with guest Kurt Elling.

Jeff Wheelwright, Fellow in General Nonfiction, 2009

The Wandering Gene and the Indian Princess: Race, Religion, and DNA, by Jeff Wheelwright will be published in January (Norton, 2012). Mr. Wheelwright's book was supported by his Guggenheim Fellowship in General Nonfiction (2009). Follow the link for more information.

John Hollenbeck, Fellow in Music Composition, 2007

What Is the Beautiful?, the newest CD by John Hollenbeck and the Claudia Quintet + 1, has just been released by Cuneiform Records. The CD, which was commissioned by the University of Rochester’s Rare Books and Special Collections Department in honor of the hundredth birthday of visual artist and poet Kenneth Patchen (Fellow in Poetry, 1936), features the voices of guest artists Kurt Elling and Theo Bleckmann.

Gregg A. Mitman, Fellow in History of Science & Technology, 2004

Gregg Mitman, William Coleman Professor of History of Science and Professor of Medical History and Science & Technology Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and interim director of the university’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, has just been named Hilldale Professor at the University of Wisconsin, one of eleven faculty members so honored. These professorships are the highest awards the university confers and are given based on national and international recognition of the quality of the candidate’s research as well as his or her significant contribution to the university’s mission, among other indicators of excellence.

Pablo Helguera, Fellow in Photography, 2008

For five years Pablo Helguera traveled in a portable schoolhouse visiting more than twenty-seven cities during his 20,000 mile journey from Anchorage to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, hosting panel discussions, town-hall meetings, workshops, and other events, all designed to explore the historical ideals of Pan-Americanism. On October 11, the CUE Foundation will celebrate the publication of The School of Panamerican Unrest (Jorge Pinto Books), a bilingual anthology and account of his project, that he edited with Sarah De Meuse. The volume contains not only materials documenting this journey but numerous critical essays about the project contributed by a variety of writers.

Milagros de la Torre, Fellow in Photography, 2011

Photographs from Ms. de la Torre’s Under the Black Sun series are featured in the September 27 issue of the Paris-based blog lalettredelaphotographie.com.

Richard Brookhiser, Fellow in Biography, 2011

James Madison (Basic Books), Richard Brookhiser’s masterly biography of this “Father of the Constitution,” has just been released to rave reviews. Publishers Weekly gave “high marks” to his “astute and witty biography,” and Library Journal praised the “relaxed and accessible writing style” of this “exceptional synopsis of the essential founder’s political life.” This latest installment in his series of biographies on the founders was supported by his Guggenheim Fellowship. Follow this link to view an image of the book.

Josef Eisinger, Fellow in History of Science & Technology, 1963, 1977

Einstein on the Road (Prometheus Books), the latest monograph by Josef Eisinger, has just been published. Based largely on Einstein’s travel diaries, the book chronicles his peregrinations between 1922 and 1933. Trained as a physicist and currently Professor Emeritus of Structural and Chemical Biology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Eisinger is a man of very eclectic interests, including music history: he translated and transcribed hundreds of Brahms letters for Johannes Brahms: Life and Letters (2001), a biography by his wife, Styra Avins. Follow this link to read the press release.

Milagors de la Torre, Fellow in Photography, 2011

Photographs from Ms. de la Torre’s Under the Black Sun series are featured in the September 27 issue of the Paris-based blog lalettredelaphotographie.com.

Michael Schultz, Fellow in Photography, 2010

Barbara O'Brien, Chief Curator at the Kemper Museum in Kansas City, interviews photographer Michael Schultz about the production and design of his new book as well as what he learned as he traveled the world photographing abandoned factories.

João Ricardo Mendes de Oliveira, Fellow in Neuroscience, 2010

Dr. Mendes de Oliveira’s latest book, Managing Idiopathic Basal Ganglia Calcification (“Fahr’s Disease”), has just been published by Nova in its Neuroscience Research Advances series. Some of the topics covered in the book are the history and classification of IBGC, its physiopathology and neuropathology, and clinical features and diagnosis, providing a “one-source reference” for neuropsychiatrists or neuroscientists. The research for this groundbreaking study was supported in part by Dr. Mendes de Oliveira’s Guggenheim Fellowship.

Jazz Journalists Association, 2011 Winners

The Jazz Journalists Association announced the 2011 Jazz Award winners on June 11. Once again, several Guggenheim Fellows were among the recipients. Theodore Sonny Rollins (1972) was named musician and tenor saxophonist of the year, Rudresh Manhanthappa (2007) was named alto saxophonist of the year, Jane Ira Bloom (2007) received the award for soprano saxophonist and Fred Hersch (2003) was named pianist of the year. Follow the link below to view the full list of winners.

Rodney C. Ewing, Fellow in Science Writing, 2002

On July 22, President Obama announced his choices for three new members of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, one of whom is Rodney Ewing. Mr. Ewing currently holds several appointments at the University of Michigan, most prominently the Edward H. Kraus Distinguished University Professorship in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Michigan, as well as faculty and visiting positions at other universities. Among the current eleven members of the board is Henry Petroski, a 1990 Fellow in the History of Science and Technology, who was appointed to the board by President George W. Bush in 2004.

Roya Hakakian, Fellow in General Nonfiction, 2008

Assassins of the Turquoise Palace, Ms. Hakakian’s second book and the project for which she received her Fellowship, is scheduled for release by Grove/Atlantic on September 6. Praised as “brilliant” and “riveting” by Joel Klein in his review for Time magazine, the book follows a determined federal prosecutor’s investigation of the murder in a German restaurant of four Iranian and Kurdish dissidents in 1992.

Wil Haygood, Fellow in Nonfiction, 2011

Wil Haygood's Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson was recently named one of the top 10 jazz books by London Guardian critic, Reggie Nadelson. Follow the link below to view the article.

Philip Roth, Fellow in Fiction, 1959

On May 18, it was announced that Philip Roth is the winner of the 2011 Man Booker International Prize, a biennial honor first awarded in 2005. The previous recipients were Ismail Kadaré, Chinua Achebe, and Alice Munro.

Rolando Peña, Fellow in Fine Arts, 2009

The Venezuelan chapter of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) has awarded Rolando Peña its Premio AICA 2010 in the category of Master of Venezuelan Art.

Frank Herrmann, Fellow in Fine Arts, 2006

Frank Herrmann: Paintings 1999-2009, his recently published portfolio of forty-five paintings illustrated in full-color plates, is a direct outgrowth of his years’ long study of the culture of the Asmat, the indigenous people of western New Guinea, which was supported in part by his Guggenheim Fellowship. Each copy will be signed by the artist. Follow this link to view the cover of the book. Follow the link below for more information about the publication of Herrmann's portfolio.

Yoan Capote, Fellow in Fine Arts, 2006

Yoan Capote has been selected as one of nine artists to represent Cuba at the 54th Venice Biennale.

Maxine Yalovitz-Blankenship, Fellow in Painting, Sculpture, and Installation Art, 1996

Nine Houses, nine matted archival pigment prints by Ms. Yalovitz-Blankenship, has just been published by Tahawus Press. The prints are housed in a clothbound boxed folio, limited to an edition of fifty, and are accompanied by text or poetry, written in response to the images, by Alan Lightman, Maxine Kumin, Florence Ladd, John Baeder, Elizabeth McKim, and fellow Guggenheim Fellows Morris Halle (1960), Philip Levine (1973, 1980), Ann Patchett (1995), and Richard Wendorf (1988). The edition was printed by Paula Boswell of Color Services LLC.

Kevin Brockmeier, Fellow in Fiction, 2007

The Illumination (Pantheon), Kevin Brockmeier’s third novel, creates a reality where each person’s pain is actually visible. In her review for the UK’s Guardian, Julie Myerson effuses that in The Illumination, Mr. Brockmeier “gives us one of the most exciting things fiction can offer – a glimpse of a world that is both completely unfamiliar and heart-sinkingly recognisable, whose dark, sweet possibilities seem to exist long after the final pages of the book.”

Michael Oppenheimer, Astronomy-Astrophysics, 1978, Elizabeth Kolbert, Science Writing, 2010

In March, The Heinz Foundation announced the award winners in its sixteenth annual competition. As in 2009 and 2010, the focus of this year’s competition was the environment. Michael Oppenheimer was recognized for “his leadership in assessing human-caused alterations to the atmosphere and promoting policies to prevent future harm”; Elizabeth Kolbert received her award for “groundbreaking” environmental journalism and “devot[ion] to educating the public about environmental issues.”

This Long Century Features Fourteen Guggenheim Fellows

In its latest online issue, Update No. 23, This Long Century includes new contributions by fourteen Guggenheim Fellows: Bruce Baillie (1968), Les Blank (1976), Jen Cohen (2001), Peter Hutton (1989), William E. Jones (1999), and Pat O’Neill (1992), who were Fellows in Film; Luc Sante (1992 Fellow in General Nonfiction); Mary Ellen Mark (1994 Fellow in Photography); Simone Forti (Fellow in Choreography 2005); and Mel Bochner (1972), Llyn Foulkes (1977), Susan Hiller (1998), Marilyn Minter (1998), and Jessica Stockholder (1996), who each received a Fellowship in Painting, Sculpture, and Installation Art.

Lorenzo Harris, Fellow in Choreography, 2010

Philly 360° online magazine has named Lorenzo Harris one of its Creative Ambassadors for 2011. A native of Philadelphia and the founding director of the dance company Rennie Harris Puremovement, Mr. Harris is a driving force in the promotion of hip-hop not only as a dance form but as a means of reaching out to and uniting generations and cultures. In addition, having been selected to participate in the DanceMotion USA cultural exchange program sponsored by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Urban Affairs and the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), in 2012 Rennie Harris Puremovement will tour Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and Jordan to showcase contemporary American dance.

Monica Haller, Fellow in Photography, 2010

The Veterans Book Project, for which Ms. Haller received her Guggenheim Fellowship, is well on its way to completion. When finished, the series will consist of fifty affordable, softbound books authored collaboratively by veterans, their family members, others directly affected by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Ms. Haller. Each book offers a firsthand account of the current wars, but is also part of a larger library, designed for public dissemination through galleries and public reading rooms. The project attempts to transform citizens’ understanding of war – one reader at a time – by offering more inclusive, complex and conflicting firsthand perspectives.

Blane De St. Croix, Fellow in Fine Arts, 2010

When the ten West Prize finalists for 2011 were selected from over 2,100 applicants from around the world, Blane De St. Croix was among the winners. Each finalist will be given an acquisition grant for his or her work to become a permanent part of the West Collection. The work newly acquired from the finalists will be exhibited at SEI, the home of the larger part of the West Collection, in May, and at the show’s opening one of the finalists will be awarded the Grand Prize of $25,000.

Amy Franceschini, Fellow in Fine Arts, 2010

Farm Together Now, which Amy Franceschini coauthored with Daniel Tucker, has just been released by Chronicle Books. Subtitled Communities Across the U.S. Bringing Good and Ideas to Your Plate, the book is a paean to those who are “producing sustainable food, challenging public policy, and developing community organizing efforts” and a great encouragement to home and community gardeners alike. The text by Ms. Franceschini and Mr. Tucker is enriched by Anne Hamersky’s photographs and a foreword by Mark Bittman.

Sam Kauffmann, Fellow in Film, 2009

When the CINE Golden Eagle Awards were announced in December, Sam Kauffmann was among the winners in the Independent category for his film Kids Living with Slim. The documentary, which he produced and directed, begins in 2004 with Mr. Kauffmann’s first visit to seven African children, aged 6 to 17, who talk openly about how they deal with being HIV positive; five years later he returns to try to relocate these children and document how their lives have changed.

Kids Living with Slim has been used by many organizations seeking to increase awareness of HIV and AIDS in Africa, and on December 1 was featured at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts as part of its World AIDS Day event. Follow this link to read the press release. Follow the link below for more information about Mr. Kauffmann's award.

2010 National Book Critics' Circle Awards

When the National Book Critics’ Circle Awards were announced on March 11, two Guggenheim Fellows were among the winners. The biography award went to Blake Bailey, for Cheever: A Life (Knopf, 2009); Mr. Bailey’s 2005 Guggenheim Fellowship helped support his work on this book. The award citation applauded Cheever as “a powerful example of reportage, a close reading of the life and the circumstances that delivers a superlative understanding of who the writer was.”

Rae Armantrout, a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow in poetry, received the poetry award for Versed (Wesleyan UP, 2009), which was praised for its “demonstration of superb intellect and technique, its melding of experimental poetics but down-to-earth subject matter to create poems you are compelled to return to, that get richer with each reading.”

Joyce Carol Oates, a 1967 Guggenheim Fellow in Fiction and one of the Foundation’s Trustees, was also honored at the ceremony, receiving the Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award. Ms. Oates first made her mark as a writer in 1959, winning Mademoiselle magazine’s fiction contest with her short story “In the Old World,” and has been steadily amassing honors ever since. These accolades range from the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award for A Garden of Earthly Delights (1968), to the Boston Book Review’s Fisk Fiction Prize for Zombie (1996), to the 2009 National Arts Club Medal of Honor in Literature. In addition, her publications are regularly among the New York Times’ picks for Notable Books of the Year. Her most recent work is Little Bird of Heaven (HarperCollins, 2009).

William Craft Brumfield, Fellow in Russian History, 2000

Russia Behind the Headlines, an international publication project of the Russian daily newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, has published a series of articles with text and photo illustrations by William Brumfield on some of the architectural treasures of Russia. A Professor of Slavic Studies at Tulane University and author of A History of Russian Architecture, Mr. Brumfield has devoted many years to researching, writing about, and preserving through photographs the beautiful and idiosyncratic architecture of Russia, and was awarded his Guggenheim Fellowship for a study of the architecture of the Russian North.

Ferapontovo: medieval treasure in the Russian North
Veliky Ustiug: Northern Jewel
Kargopol: Star of the Russian North
Miracle of Light: the Solovetsky Transfiguration Monastery
(Miracle of Light: the Solovetsky Transfiguration Monastery also appears in the Washington Post supplement.
Follow this link to read the article)

Follow the link below to read Mr. Brumfield's discussion of Neoclassical architecture in the Russian provinces

Rolando Peña, Fellow in Installation Art, 2009

In his latest exploration of the symbolic meaning of oil, now on exhibit at the library of the Universidad Simón Bolívar, Rolando Peña uses sixteen oil barrels, arranged in three color groups—black, gold, and silver—to represent the basic building blocks of the universe: bosons, quarks, and leptons. The accompanying ten-minute video discusses the scientific discoveries about the origins of the universe. Together, the elements of the installation offer Mr. Peña’s newest commentary on the relationship of oil to Venezuelan and world culture, aesthetics, politics, and ecology.

Follow this link for more information about Rolando Peña's Petróleo Verde

Follow the link below for more information about this exhibition and related events

Judith H. Dobrzynski

Judith Dobrzynski, a consultant to the Leon Levy Foundation, generously featured a number of 2011 Guggenheim Fellows in fine arts in her recent realcleararts blogs on artsjournal.com. To read Ms. Dobrzynski's blogs and view her interesting sampling of Fellows' artworks, follow these links:

Judith H. Dobrzynski: "Who Gets To Call Themselves Guggenheim Fellows? The 2011 Art Winners

We note the passing of the following Fellows. The Foundation always appreciates receiving information about Guggenheim Fellows.

Ai, Fellow in Poetry, 1975 More
Milton Byron Babbitt, Fellow in Music Composition, 1960 More
Lawrence Badash, Fellow in History of Science and Technology, 1984 More
Oscar G. Brockett, Fellow in Theatre Arts, 1970 More
H. Allen Brooks, Fellow in Architecture and Design, 1973 More
Byron L. Burford, Fellow in Fine Arts, 1960 More
John Green Burr, Fellow in Chemistry, 1964
Daniel Catán, Fellow in Music Composition, 2000 More
Joel Colton, Fellow in French History, 1957 More
Robert V. Daniels, Fellow in Russian History, 1980 More
Joe Deal, Fellow in Photography, 1983 More
André Jacques de Béthune, Fellow in Chemistry, 1960 More
Loni Ding, Fellow in Film, 1982 More
Edgar Owen Edwards, Fellow in Economics, 1954
George Edwards, Fellow in Music Composition, 1980, 1985
Martin E. Fishbein, Fellow in Psychology, 1967 More
Arthur Layton Funk, Fellow in French History, 1954 More
Charles Montgomery Gray, Fellow in Law, 1966 More
Jack K. Hale, Fellow in Mathematics, 1979 More
Joseph de Heer, Fellow in Chemistry, 1959 More
Daniel D. Joseph, Fellow in Applied Mathematics, 1969
Leon Knopoff, Fellow in Earth Science, 1976 More
Freda Koblick, Fellow in Painting, Sculpture, and Installation Art, 1970 More
Arnold Kramish, Fellow in Political Science, 1966 More
Hans W. Niemeyer Fernández, Fellow in Anthropology and Cultural Studies, 2001 More
Carl Gans, Fellow in Biology and Ecology, 1953, 1977 More
Paul Griminger, Fellow in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 1964 More
Erick L. Lehmann, Fellow in Statistics, 1955, 1966, 1979 More
William N. Lipscomb, Fellow in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, 1954, 1972 More
Kwang Ching Liu, Fellow in East Asian Studies, 1968 More
Charles R. Lyons, Fellow in Theatre Arts, 1976
Maynard Mack, Fellow in English Literature, 1942, 1964, 1982 More
Kazumi Maki, Fellow in Physics, 1979 More
Frank Manley, Fellow in Renaissance History, 1966, 1978 More
Lynn Margulis, Fellow in Biology and Ecology, 1978 More
Juan Marichal, Spanish and Portuguese Literature, 1957, 1972 More
Edwin Wilson Marrs Jr., Fellow in English Literature, 1972
Donald Bertram McIntyre, Fellow in the History of Science and Technology, 1969 More
Paul Meier, Fellow in Statistics, 1982 More
Roger Mertin, Fellow in Photography, 1974
Luis Monguió, Fellow in Spanish and Portuguese Literature, 1951 More
Lincoln E. Moses, Fellow in Statistics, 1960 More
Ian Mueller, Fellow in Philosophy, 1991 More
John Emery Murdoch, Fellow in History of Science and Technology, 1975 More
Charles Muscatine, Fellow in Medieval Literature, 1962 More
Karol J. Mysels, Fellow in Chemistry, 1965
Kasuhiko Nishijima, Fellow in Physics, 1965 More
Steven Alan Orzag, Fellow in Applied Mathematics, 1989 More
Robert M. Palmer, Fellow in Music Composition, 1952 More
George Perle, Fellow in Music Composition, 1966, 1974 More
Otto Pflanze, Fellow in German and East European History, 1966 More
Allen W. Phillips, Fellow in Spanish and Portuguese Literature, 1960, 1973 More
Burton Pollin, Fellow in American Literature, 1973
Richard Robbins, Fellow in Sociology, 1974
Charles Ryskamp, Fellow in English Literature, 1966, and Guggenheim Foundation Trustee (1983-2010) More
Arthur Sherbo, Fellow in English Literature, 1956 More
Robert Sklar, Fellow in U.S. History, 1970 More
Joanne Malkus Simpson, Fellow in Earth Science, 1954 More
Theodore R. Sizer, Fellow in Education, 1970 More
Lawrence B. Slobodkin, Fellow in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, 1961, 1974 More
Otto J. M. Smith, Fellow in Applied Mathematics, 1959 More
Alan Templeton, Fellow in Chemistry, 1953, 1968
James Thorpe, Fellow in Literary Criticism, 1949, 1965
James Jerome Walsh, Fellow in Philosophy, 1966 More
Kurt Weinberg, Fellow in French Literature, 1960
Harry H. Wellington, Fellow in Law, 1965 More
Mark Robert Willcott III, Fellow in Chemistry, 1972

Guggenheim Foundation "Firsts"

On May 28, 1925, the first class of Guggenheim Fellows was appointed. Culled from a field of only seventy-four applicants, the fifteen 1925 Fellows included composer Aaron Copland. Somewhat ahead of its time in recognizing the accomplishments of women, the Foundation also appointed Violet Barbour, a professor of history at Vassar College. The next year the field of applicants grew to nearly 900; of these thirty-nine received Fellowships, and five Fellows from the inaugural class received second Fellowships.

Follow @GuggFellows

Flickr