Elizabeth LeCompte Wins $300,000 Gish Prize

The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the most lucrative awards for individual artists, has been awarded to Elizabeth LeCompte, a pioneer of experimental theater and founding director of The Wooster Group. The prize, established in 1994 by actress Lillian Gish, carries a $300,000 award and is given annually to an artist who pushes the boundaries of an art form and contributes to social change. LeCompte will receive the award in a private ceremony at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in November. Past recipients include Spike Lee, Frank Gehry, Maya Lin, and Bob Dylan. The article also surveys other major art prizes: the Abraaj Capital Art Prize ($1 million shared among five winners), the Praemium Imperiale (€650,000 across five categories), the Plastov Prize (over $600,000 divided among 16 categories), ArtPrize and Gulbenkian Prize (around $250,000 each), and several $100,000 prizes including the Nasher Prize awarded to Pierre Huyghe.