Photo: courtesy of MIT.
Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye is the winner of the 2016 Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts presented by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The architect will receive a sum of $100,000 and will participate in an artist residency at the Cambridge-based institution, which include a public presentation of Adjaye’s work, interaction with faculty and students, and a gala bash to bring together national and international leaders in the arts, according to MIT News.
“In my career I have sought to cross creative platforms, to collaborate with artists and designers from different disciplines and to focus on the creative discourse surrounding the act of making things. I believe it is this dialogue—the cultural intersection—that moves us forward, generates new possibilities and creates greatness,” Adjaye said in a statement.
Adjaye Associates and AB Studios, ‘Moscow School of Management’ in Skolkovo, Russia, 2010.
Image: Ed Reeve. Courtesy of Adjaye Associates
Adjaye’s well-known projects include the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., the new Studio Museum in Harlem expansion, and an upcoming cancer center in Rwanda. In June, Knoll unveiled the Adjaye Collection, a series of African-inspired textiles designed to shatter stereotypes of the country’s creative output.
His exhibition “Making Place: The Architecture of David Adjaye” at the Art Institute of Chicago opens this month.
Past recipients of the award include artist Olafur Eliasson, playwright Suzan-Lori Parks, and architect Santiago Calatrava, among others.
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