Honoring

Dr. Judith M. Burton | Sean Kelly | Barbara and Aaron Levine

Award presented by Samuel Hoi - President, Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)
CITYarts brick award created by artists Aimee Ehrman and Tom Lollar

Dr. Judith M. Burton holds the Macy Chair of Education at Columbia University Teachers College (TC); she is also a Professor of Art & Art Education.  Before coming to TC she was Chair of Art Education at Boston University and taught at the Massachusetts College of Art.  Burton received her Ed. D. from Harvard University in 1980. Her research focuses on the artistic-aesthetic development of children, adolescents and young adults and the implications this has for teaching and learning and the culture in general.  In 1995 she co-founded the Center for Research in Arts Education at Teachers College, and in 1996 founded the Heritage School – a comprehensive high school featuring the arts – located in Harlem, NYC. Her book Conversations in Art: The Dialectics of Teaching and Learning co-edited with Dr. Mary Hafeli was published in 2012. She is author of numerous articles and chapters and currently has two books in process of publication: She received the Manuel Barkan Award for excellence in research writing, the Lowenfeld Award for lifetime achievement in art education from National Art Education Association (NAEA) and the Ziegfeld Award for services to international art education from the International Society for Education Through Art (INSEA). Dr, Burton is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts in Great Britain, a Distinguished Fellow of the NAEA, and serves as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing, and the South China Normal University, Guangzhou.  She holds an honorary doctorate from the Beaconhouse University, Lahore, Pakistan. She is a trustee of the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD, USA and a former trustee of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine, USA. She is the NAEA Eisner Lifetime Achievement honoree for 2015, in recognition of her services to the profession both nationally and globally. Her chapter Crossings and Displacements: The Artist and the Teacher, Reweaving the Future is included in the AERA Handbook on Research and Teaching 2016.

Award presented by Lauren and Thomas Kelly
CITYarts brick award created by Sam Moyer

Sean Kelly began his career in England as an artist, subsequently serving as a museum curator and director before relocating to New York where he established his eponymous gallery in 1991. Over the course of more than twenty-five years, the Gallery has garnered international attention for its collaborations with renowned cultural institutions, coordinating hundreds of exhibitions on behalf of its artists at an array of prestigious museums. It is notable that the Gallery is multigenerational and very much a family business, Sean’s children Lauren and Thomas Kelly are both Partners. The Gallery has become a symbol for high quality, thought provoking contemporary art and conversation, most recently with the launch of Collect Wisely in May 2018. Collect Wisely is an overarching advertising, podcast, social media, and event driven campaign aimed at refocusing the discourse around collecting to return to the heart of the matter: discussing art, artists, and a passion for collecting and connoisseurship. Sean is equally committed to education, human rights and social justice issues, making the gallery available free of charge to educational advocacy groups and school tours throughout the year. Recently Sean and his wife Mary Kelly donated their extensive James Joyce collection to The Morgan Library & Museum. Sean currently serves on the board of PEN America where he is the Co-Chair of the annual PEN Literary Gala.

Award presented by Blake Gopnik, art critic
CITYarts brick award created by Sadie Aeder

As significant art collectors for more than 30 years, Barbara and Aaron Levine love to tell the story of how their teenage granddaughter Sadie had a discussion with a boy who believed there was no art after painting, and how she lectured and enlightened him on Marcel Duchamp’s readymades. The Levine family’s engaged love and appreciation regarding imagination and artistic expression extends into education with Sadie’s mother Jennifer Levine and her husband Jeff Aeder, who together founded the Wolcott School, a college-prep high school in Chicago for children with learning differences, where creativity is a centerpiece. The Levine’s commitment to learning and the arts is further reflected in Barbara and Aaron’s recent and expansive donation of major historical works by Duchamp to the Hirshhorn Museum. The two continue to donate art to museums and books to museum libraries.