Eight US Art Writers Awarded $50,000 Each in 2026 Rabkin Prize

The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation has named the winners of the 2026 Rabkin Prize, an annual award that recognizes outstanding art writers in the United States. This year, eight recipients were selected, each receiving a $50,000 cash prize. The award honors their recent work and contributions to the field of art writing.

The 2026 winners represent a diverse group of professionals, including academics, podcasters, journalists, and curators. Among them are Julia Halperin, contributor to The Art Newspaper and former editor; Damien Davis, an artist and writer based in New Jersey; and Melaine Ferdinand-King, inaugural curator of the African American Museum of Rhode Island. Other honorees include Tyler Green, host of The Modern Art Notes Podcast; Alicia Inez Guzmán, a writer from the Southwest; Sarah Lewis, a Harvard University professor and founder of the Vision & Justice initiative; Jan Tumlir, founding editor of the contemporary art journal X-TRA; and Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, an independent journalist and critic based in Los Angeles.

Many of this year’s awardees address themes such as politics, power, race, equity, and representation in their work, both within the art world and beyond. Sarah Lewis, one of the recipients, noted the importance of culture in driving societal change, stating that legal reforms alone are not enough to overcome societal blind spots.

Candidates for the Rabkin Prize are chosen through a nomination process, and an independent jury selects the winners based on recent work samples and resumes. The 2026 jury consisted of Irene Borger, founding director of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts; Jaime DeSimone, chief curator at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Maine; and Legacy Russell, director and chief curator of The Kitchen in New York.

A series of interviews with the 2026 Rabkin Prize winners will be available online on September 16, providing further insight into their work and perspectives. The Rabkin Prize continues to highlight influential voices shaping contemporary art criticism and discourse in the United States.