24th Annual Frederic Church Awards

Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for Whitney Museum

CURATOR: Barbara Haskell

Barbara Haskell is a long-time curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, a well-known scholar on American modern art, and author of over thirty publications. Among the landmark thematic exhibitions she has curated are The American Century: Art & Culture 1900–1950 (1999), BLAM! The Explosion of Pop, Minimalism and Performance 1958–1964 (1984), and Vida Americana: Mexican Muralists Remake American Art, 1925–1945 (2020). In addition, she has curated retrospectives and authored accompanying scholarly monographs on a range of early-twentieth-century and post-war American artists, including H. C. Westermann (1978), Marsden Hartley (1980), Milton Avery (1982), Ralston Crawford (1985), Charles Demuth (1987), Red Grooms (1987), Donald Judd (1988), Burgoyne Diller (1990), Agnes Martin (1992), Joseph Stella (1994), Edward Steichen (2000), Elie Nadelman (2003), Oscar Bluemner (2005), Georgia O’Keeffe (2009), Lyonel Feininger (2011), Robert Indiana (2013), Stuart Davis (2016), and Grant Wood (2018). In 2003, she was awarded the Lawrence A. Fleischman Award for Scholarly Excellence in the Field of American Art History by the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

INTERIOR DESIGNER: Sheila Bridges

Named America’s Best Interior Designer by Time magazine and CNN, Sheila Bridges is a creative visionary and design tastemaker. Residing and working between Harlem, Hudson, NY and Reykjavik, Iceland; Bridges has been globally recognized for her classic yet versatile design aesthetic and critical eye.

For the past 30 years, Bridges has created beautiful spaces for a diverse group of high-profile clients, including the Harlem offices for former President Bill Clinton and his staff, and the redecoration of One Observatory Circle, the official residence of Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Her masterful, multi-layered interiors have earned her inclusion on Elle Decor’s A List, Architectural Digest’s AD100, 1stDibs 50 and most recently, Forbes magazine’s 50 Over 50.

Sheila’s professional expertise extends well beyond her thirty-five-year tenure in interior design, including hosting four seasons of Sheila Bridges: Designer Living on the Fine Living Network, authoring two books, being a former contributor on NBC’s Today show and a monthly contributing editor at MORE Magazine.

Her visual cultural translations have been showcased in museums internationally, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Studio Museum of Harlem, the Museum of the City of New York, Musée Des Beaux-Arts Montreal and the Musée De La Toile De Jouy in Jouy-en Josas, France. Bridges is also honored to have her designs included in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, RISD Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

PATRON: Janet S. Dicke

Born in Pittsburgh, Janet Dicke is a world traveler, art collector, and philanthropist. She graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio with a B.A. major in elementary education. She married her Trinity sweetheart, Jim Dicke, after graduation, and moved to New Bremen, OH, where Jim joined the family business, Crown Equipment. Janet is devoted to education and has served as a trustee, chairman, and chairman emeritus of The Academy at Ocean Reef, a private school in Key Largo, FL for 3-year-olds through 8^th grade and currently serves as a trustee of Trinity University. Janet has been involved in the management of interior design needs for Crown Equipment’s corporate guest facilities and of a restaurant in New Bremen. She and Jim are avid and adventuresome travelers, and Janet enjoys researching destinations to experience as much of its culture, food, art, and history as possible. She enjoys art expos, most notably the Art Venice Biennale. Janet has always been attracted to nature and the environment and sees Olana as uniting her passions for art and nature.  Janet and Jim have a son and daughter and five grandsons.

Kelly M. Williams (2023)
Sarah D. Coffin (2023)
Lynn Davis (2023)
Meredith Kane (2022)
Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser (2022)
Jean Shin (2022)
Eleanor Jones Harvey (2020)
David Redden (2020)
Jazz Johnson Merton (2019)
Rose Harvey (2019)
Patricia Phelps de Cisneros (2018)
David Schuyler (2018)
Laurie Olin, FASLA (2017)

Dr. Linda S. Ferber (2017)
Washburn and Susan Oberwager (2016)
The Cultural Legacy of Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller (2016)
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s NY Parks 2020 (2015)
Jim Hamilton (2015)
Martin Puryear (2015)
Jason Rosenfeld, Ph.D. (2015)
Lucy Rockefeller Waletzky, M.D. (2015)
Peter Pennoyer (2014)
Katie Ridder (2014)
Betsy Broun (2013)
Stephen Hannock (2013)

Morrison Heckscher (2012)
Martha Stewart (2012)
Franklin Kelly (2009)
Jonathan Westervelt Warner (2009)
Alice Walton (2008)
John Wilmerding (2008)
Bernadette Castro (2005)
Kay Toll (2003)
Bradford Race, Jr. (2002)
Leon Botstein (2000)
E. Virgil Conway (1999)
John Cronin (1999)