Dickinson Awards

"My Mother and I Watch a Pig Escape From the Slaughterhouse," 2006, oil on canvas

The college's Arts Award honors an individual or group's outstanding contribution to the creative or performing arts. Each recipient spends several days in residence at Dickinson, sharing talents and ideas with the college community. The Arts Award was initiated by the Dickinson faculty and endowed in 1959 by gifts from members of the Board of Trustees. It was named in honor of William W. Edel, president of the college from 1946 to 1959.

• The Bread and Puppet Theatre 2021-22
• Donyale Werle (2018-19)
• Barry Snyder (2016-17)
• Sue Coe, drawing and printmaking  (2013-14)
• Trisha Brown, dance (2007-08)
• André Gregory, drama (2004-05) 
• Milton Babbitt, music (2001-02)
• Julie Harris, drama (2000-01)
• Phyllis Bryn-Julson, music (1996-97)
• Twyla Tharp, dance (1995-96)
• Seamus Heaney, poetry (1992-93)
• Leon Golub, painting (1991-92)
• Horton Foote, cinema (1989-90)
• Tommy Flanagan, music (1988-89)
• Robert Stone, literature (1986-87)
• David Mamet, drama (1984-85)
• Pennsylvania Ballet, dance (1983-84)
• Thomas Binkley, music (1982-83)
• Toshiko Takaezu, ceramics (1982-83)
• John Barth, literature (1980-81)
• Zelda Fichandler, drama (1976-77)
• Mauricio Lasansky, printmaking (1974-75)
• The Philadelphia Orchestra, music (1973-74)
• John Cage, music (1969-70)  
• W.H. Auden, poetry (1967-68)
• Walter Piston, music (1964-65)
• Leonard Baskin, graphic arts (1963-64)
• Judith Anderson, theatre (1960-61)
• Eero Saarinen, architecture (1959-60)
• Robert Frost, poetry (1958-59)

Learn more about art & art history, music, creative writing and theatre & dance at Dickinson.

View this semester's Calendar of Arts.