26th Annual Frederic Church Awards
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Cocktails 6:30 PM | Dinner and Broadcast 8:00 PM
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC
Black Tie Optional
Honoring
ARTIST
Jeffrey Gibson
AUTHOR
Victoria Johnson
OLANA CHAMPIONS
Stephen Clearman | Margaret Davidson | Phoebe Gubelmann
Bindy Kaye | Susan Livingston | Richard McCarthy | Susan Winokur
A special tribute to the preservation leaders who saved Olana in the 1960s.
David Huntington | Jackie Kennedy | Stephen and Audrey Currier
The 2026 Honorees
Photo by Brian Barlow
ARTIST: Jeffrey Gibson
Jeffrey Gibson is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and convener celebrated for his work in painting, installation, video, and performance. For over two decades, he has examined how language, pattern, and music construct meaning, synthesizing Indigenous and Western traditions through vibrant color, complex patterning, and layered sound. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson represented the U.S. at the 2024 Venice Biennale with his acclaimed exhibition the space in which to place me, which made its U.S. debut at The Broad in Los Angeles in May 2025. In June 2025 he unveiled a site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Zurich. Gibson was selected for The Metropolitan Museum’s 2025 Genesis Facade Commission and will present new work for the historic exterior this September. His work is held in major collections including MoMA, the Whitney, and the National Gallery of Art. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley and is artist-in-residence at Bard College.
Photo by Shelley Thomas
AUTHOR: Victoria Johnson
Victoria Johnson is the author of three books, including the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic.
She is a professor of urban policy and planning at Hunter College in New York City and holds a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Yale.
Johnson’s latest book, Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World, is the first-ever biography of Frederic Church (1826-1900), the virtuosic painter who put American art on the map of the world.
OLANA CHAMPIONS
Stephen Clearman
Margaret Davidson
Phoebe Gubelmann
Belinda Kaye
Susan Livingston
Richard McCarthy
Susan Winokur
We will also present a special tribute to the preservation leaders who saved Olana in the 1960s
David Huntington, Jackie Kennedy, and Audrey & Stephen Currier.
The 2026 Honorees
Photo by Brian Barlow
Jeffrey Gibson
Jeffrey Gibson is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, and convener celebrated for his work in painting, installation, video, and performance. For over two decades, he has examined how language, pattern, and music construct meaning, synthesizing Indigenous and Western traditions through vibrant color, complex patterning, and layered sound. A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, Gibson represented the U.S. at the 2024 Venice Biennale with his acclaimed exhibition the space in which to place me, which made its U.S. debut at The Broad in Los Angeles in May 2025. In June 2025 he unveiled a site-specific installation at Kunsthaus Zurich. Gibson was selected for The Metropolitan Museum’s 2025 Genesis Facade Commission and will present new work for the historic exterior this September. His work is held in major collections including MoMA, the Whitney, and the National Gallery of Art. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley and is artist-in-residence at Bard College.
Photo by Shelley Thomas
Victoria Johnson
Victoria Johnson is the author of three books, including the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic.
She is a professor of urban policy and planning at Hunter College in New York City and holds a doctorate in sociology from Columbia University and an undergraduate degree in philosophy from Yale.
Johnson’s latest book, Glorious Country: How the Artist Frederic Church Brought the World to America and America to the World, is the first-ever biography of Frederic Church (1826-1900), the virtuosic painter who put American art on the map of the world.
We will also honor a group of Olana Champions
Stephen Clearman, Margaret Davidson, Phoebe Gubelmann, Belinda Kaye, Susan Livingston, Richard McCarthy, and Susan Winokur.
Together, these individuals have given 200 years of service and support to The Olana Partnership’s work at Olana.
We will also present a special tribute to the preservation leaders who saved Olana in the 1960s
David Huntington, Jackie Kennedy, and Audrey & Stephen Currier.
About the Award
Frederic Church (1826-1900), was an American visionary, the most successful member of America’s first art movement, the Hudson River School. In 2000, the centenary of Church’s death, The Olana Partnership established the Frederic Church Award to honor individuals who, through their vision, commitment and grasp of creative trends, make extraordinary contributions to American art and culture.
Frederic Church Award Recipients (2000 – 2025)
Leon Botstein
Sheila Bridges
Betsy Broun
Bernadette Castro
Sarah D. Coffin
E. Virgil Conway
John Cronin
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s NY Parks 2020
Lynn Davis
Janet S. Dicke
Dr. Linda S. Ferber
Jim Hamilton
Stephen Hannock
David Hartt
Eleanor Jones Harvey
Rose Harvey
Barbara Haskell
Morrison Heckscher
Jazz Johnson-Merton
Meredith Kane
Franklin Kelly
Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser
Washburn and Susan Oberwager
Laurie Olin, FASLA
Peter Pennoyer
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
Martin Puryear
Bradford Race, Jr.
David Redden
Katie Ridder
The Cultural Legacy of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller
David and Susan Rockefeller
Jason Rosenfeld, Ph.D.
David Schuyler
Jean Shin
Martha Stewart
Kay Toll
Lucy Rockefeller Waletzky
Alice Walton
Jonathan Westervelt Warner
Kelly M. Williams
John Wilmerding
Thomas L. Woltz
Past Event Photos
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