Toyin Ojih Odutola, recipient of 2024 Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize, and Studio Museum in Harlem Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden, who presented the prize. | Photo by Julie Skarratt, Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM’s fall fundraising gala is an annual celebration of the institution and the artists it champions. This year, the event featured two major announcements. Toyin Ojih Odutola (b. 1985) won the 2024 Joyce Alexander Wein Artist Prize and the Ford Foundation gave the Studio Museum a $10 million endowment grant, permanently funding the director and chief curator position held by Thelma Golden since 2005.
On Oct. 28, the Studio Museum in Harlem gala was held at the Glass House in New York City. More than 700 artists, trustees, philanthropists, civic figures, leaders of cultural institutions, and other guests attended and more than $3.7 million was raised, according to the museum.
Golden presented the $50,000 Wein Prize to Odutola. “Toyin’s intricately depicted works in pen, pencil, charcoal, and pastel are active inquiries into the possibilities of world building and visual storytelling,” Golden said. “The artist therefore not only builds on a legacy of Black radical imagination, but has created her own language within this field of thought which unfolds across paper and linen.”
The New York artist was born in Nigeria and raised in Alabama. On view earlier this year, “Toyin Ojih Odutola: Ilé Oriaku” at Kunsthalle Basel was her first institutional solo exhibition in Switzerland.
“Toyin’s intricately depicted works in pen, pencil, charcoal, and pastel are active inquiries into the possibilities of world building and visual storytelling.” — Thelma Golden
ALONG WITH THE WEIN PRIZE and the transformational endowment grant, a monumental moment on the near horizon was also celebrated. After eight years of construction, the Studio museum’s long-awaited new building opens to the public in fall 2025.
The Ford Foundation grant is tied to this next chapter, helping to secure the museum’s future. Going forward, the endowed position now held by Golden will be titled The Ford Foundation Director and Chief Curator.
“My colleagues and I are humbled to contribute to the future of such a vitally important institution. I’m grateful to all of you for your presence and your recognition of the value of this work—of this art,” Ford Foundation President Darren Walker said when he announced the grant.
“I look forward to visiting the Studio Museum in its new home for years to come, continuing to bear witness to the ways that artists of African descent are historicizing our collective past, documenting our collective present, and imagining our collective future—a world defined by powerful art and enduring justice.” CT
FIND MORE about Toyin Ojih Odutola on Instagram, and Jack Shainman and Corvi Mora galleries
Ford Foundation President Darren Walker announced a $10 million endowment grant, permanently funding the Studio Museum in Harlem’s director and chief curator position. The grant coincides with Thelma Golden’s forthcoming 20th anniversary at the helm of the institution and anticipates the opening of the museum’s new building in fall 2025. | Photo by Bre Johnson/BFA.com, Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
From left, Studio Museum in Harlem Board Chair Raymond J. McGuire; Andrew W. Mellon Foundation President Elizabeth Alexander; artist Julie Mehretu; and Studio Museum in Harlem Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden. | Photo by Bre Johnson/BFA.com, Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
Left, New York artist Glenn Ligon. | Photo by Bre Johnson/BFA.com, Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
From left, Whitney Museum of American Art Director Scott Rothkopf; Studio Museum in Harlem Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden; and MoMA PS1 Director Connie Butler. | Photo by Bre Johnson/BFA.com, Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
Jon Gray, co-founder of Ghetto Gastro, the Bronx culinary collective. | Photo by Julie Skarratt, Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
From left, Hanna Bronfman, Studio Museum in Harlem Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden, Brendan Fallis, and Nicole Ari Parker. | Photo by Bre Johnson/BFA.com, Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
Chicago artist Dawoud Bey. | Photo by Bre Johnson/BFA.com, Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
From left Tina Knowles, Studio Museum in Harlem Trustee Kathryn Chenault, and Studio Museum in Harlem Director and Chief Curator Thelma Golden. | Photo by Julie Skarratt, Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
Studio Museum in Harlem Board Chair Raymond J. McGuire: “This gift is a monumental commitment, and it speaks volumes of the Ford Foundation’s faith in the Studio Museum, and of their unwavering belief in the power art holds to shape and elevate culture.” | Photo by Bre Johnson/BFA.com, Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
Tonya Lewis Lee. | Photo by Thelma Garcia for Julie Skarratt Photography, Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
Ivan Forde and sonia louise davis. | Photo by Bre Johnson/BFA.com, Courtesy Studio Museum in Harlem
BOOKSHELF
“Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem” was published on the occasion of the touring exhibition and includes contributions by Pauline Willis and Thelma Golden, essays by Connie H. Choi and Kellie Jones, and a conversation between Choi, Golden, and Jones, along with contributions from many others who write about works in the Studio Museum’s permanent collection. Recently published, “Smokehouse Associates” explores the public art collective established by William T. Williams, a co-founder of the Studio Museum in Harlem.
