Aruna D'Souza
Edmonton-born arts writer Aruna D'Souza is one of eight winners of a $50,000 Rabkin Prize awarded by the Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation in the United States.
D'Souza, now based in Massachusetts, contributes to the New York Times and other publications. Her most recent book, Whitewalling: Art, Race, and Protest in 3 Acts (Badlands Unlimited), was named one of the best art books of 2018 by the Times.
The foundation has awarded more than $2.2 million to individual art writers since the Rabkin Prize was launched in 2017.
Leo Rabkin was an artist who worked and exhibited in New York City for 60 years. His wife, Dorothea, joined with Leo to create a landmark collection of American folk and outsider art.
The other winners, announced earlier this month, are John Yau in New York, Raquel Gutierrez in Arizona, Jarrett Earnest in New York, Mark Lamster in Texas, Yinka Elujoba in New York; Jennifer Huberdeau in Massachusetts, and Jasmine Weber in New York.
The Rabkins lived in Chelsea and had a wide circle of friends including artists, writers and curators. Dorothea, who died in 2008, emigrated to the United States from Berlin following the Second World War, after being hidden with her twin sister. Leo died in 2015 at the age of 95. He had many friends among the city’s art journalists and was an avid reader of the art press.
D'Souza, who was raised in Flin Flon, Man., and Lethbridge, Alta., is a judge for the SAAG Writing Prize, organized by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge, in partnership with Galleries West. She sponsors the contest's Aruna D'Souza Award for BIPOC writers, which is open to residents of Canada.
Source: The Leo Rabkin Foundation