Martha Wilson and Christine Tohme win 2015 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence

Martha Wilson and Christine Tohme have been honored with the 2015 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. This $25,000 accolade, created in 2012 in tribute to philanthropist Audrey Irmas, celebrates impactful curators from around the globe. Wilson, a feminist artist and the founding director of Franklin Furnace—an artist-run venue established in 1976—champions artist books, performance art, and digital works. Her accolades include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts, as well as a Yoko Ono Lennon Courage Award for the Arts and an honorary doctorate from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in 2013. Tohme, an independent curator, co-founded Ashkal Alwan in Beirut in 1993, which fosters contemporary artistic endeavors through initiatives like Home Works: A Forum on Cultural Practices (2002) and the Home Workspace Program (2011). She received the Prince Claus Award in 2006 and is active on the boards of Marsa in Beirut and SAHA in Istanbul. The award, designed by artist Lawrence Weiner based on his 2006 commission Bard Enter, will be awarded at a gala dinner on 15 April 2015. For 18 years, the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College has been responsible for presenting this honor.