24th Annual Frederic Church Awards

Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Cocktails 6:30pm | Dinner and Broadcast 8:00pm

The Rainbow Room, New York City | Enter at 49 West 49th Street
In-person or broadcast LIVE from New York City
-Cocktail attire-

HONORING

CURATOR: Barbara Haskell

INTERIOR DESIGNER: Sheila Bridges

PATRON: Janet S. Dicke

If you have any questions please contact Nicole Madden by emailing nmadden@olana.org or calling 518-391-1232.


The 2024 Honorees

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.

Photo by Nick Carter

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 8th 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.


Lead Supporters

Frederic Church Circle

Janet and Jim Dicke

Landmark Circle

Alice L. Walton

Preservation Circle

The Gubelmann Family
Beth and Ricky Mason
Lucy Rhame
Helen and Peter Warwick
Susan Winokur and Paul Leach

Artist Circle

Amy and David Abrams
Joe Baker
Eric Blair-Joannou
Jamie Carano and Philip Nordenström
Laurel Durst and Edward Strong
Meredith J. Kane
Bindy and Stephen Kaye
Robin and David Key
Jennifer Krieger and Eric Siegel
Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund
Anne Welsh McNulty
Mary and Garrett Moran
Nancy and Fred Poses
Sam Rose
Emily Sachar and Joel Gordin
Sedgwick Ward
Kelly Williams and Andrew Forsyth
Karen Zukowski and David Diamond

Hudson River Valley Benefactor

Regina Aldisert
Margaret Davidson and John Stein
Paula and Philip Forman
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC
Kristin Gamble
Agnes Gund
Jean D. Hamilton and Richard N. McCarthy
Suk Han and Andrea Vittorelli
Barbara and Sven Huseby
Sheila and Bill Lambert
Nick and Nancy Lanni
Ricky Lark, Ph.D. and Rickey Shaum
Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects
Lynn and Nick Nicholas
Robert Ouimette
Russell Post
David and Susan Rockefeller
Jane Smith
Herb and Paula Stumberg
Monica Taylor Lotty and Brendan Lotty
Felicitas Thorne
Barbara Tober
Nadia Zilkha and Larry Stein

Preservation Patron

Diane Archer
Architecture Research Office
Hal Aronow-Theil and Pat Henry
Richard A. and Joanne Brodie
Elizabeth Broun
Sarah D. Coffin and Thomas O’Connor
Cheryl and Blair Effron
Tom and Tania Evans
Feuerman Studios
Stephen Hannock and Jason Rosenfeld
John and Hélène Heath
Gary O. Holder and Todd M. Whitley
Elizabeth Graziolo
Jan and Lester Greenberg
Alan Hilliker and Vivien Liu
Victoria Johnson and Markley Boyer
Christine Jones and Bert Goldfinger
Susan and Roger Kennedy
Victor and Sarah Kovner
James LaForce and Stephen Henderson
Alison Lankenau
Miyoung E. Lee
The Lunder Foundation
Jennifer and Jesse Lynn
Michael Altman Fine Art & Advisory Services
Washburn and Susan Oberwager
Deborah Roberts and Al Roker
Elizabeth Roberts, Psy.D.
Thomas A. and Georgina T. Russo
Gillian and Simon Salama-Caro
Constance and Eric Silverman
Denise Simon and Paulo Vieira da Cunha
Sotheby’s
Michael Tavano and Lloyd Marks
Kay and Maynard Toll
Illiana Van Meeteren and Terence Boylan
Paul and Christabel Vartanian
Lucy R. Waletzky, M.D.
Dianne Young


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.

Past Frederic Church Award Recipients

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)