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BARD GRADUATE CENTER ANNOUNCES IRIS FOUNDATION AWARD RECIPIENTS

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NEW YORK CITY — Dr Susan Weber Soros, founder and director of the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture, has announced the recipients of the 11th annual Iris Foundation Awards for Outstanding Contributions to the Decorative Arts. This years awardees are Liliane M. Stewart, Henry Hawley, Barry Bergdoll and Eric N. Shrubsole.

In announcing the awards, Soros said, “This year’s awardees have advanced the decorative arts through their patronage, professional commitment and dedication to scholarship. Their efforts have brought about a greater recognition of the social, cultural and historical significance of the field.”

The awards will be presented at a luncheon at the St Regis Hotel in New York City on April 23.

Stewart has dedicated herself to cultural, historical, education and social projects for many years. The head of the Macdonald Steward Foundation since the death of her husband David in 1984, she has played a key role in guiding the path of one of Canada’s most important charitable foundations. The donation of the Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is considered to be one of the most important donations of art works ever received in the institution’s history.

Hawley was born in Dallas and received his BA from Stanford. While studying at Harvard for his master’s in baroque art, he became fascinated with the ceramics in the Wadsworth Atheneum’s collections in Hartford, Conn., during an internship there in 1957. Finishing at Harvard, but interested in a career as a curator of decorative arts, he went on to earn another master’s, emphasizing American decorative arts and culture, at the Winterthur Program at the University of Delaware.

Bergdoll is Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art since January 1. He is also professor of art history at Columbia University, where he served as chair of the Department of Art History and Archeology from 2004 to 2006. During his career, he has organized, curated and consulted on many landmark exhibitions of Nineteenth and Twentieth Century architecture.

Shrubsole was born near London in 1912. His father was S.J. Shrubsole, the well-known London silver dealer. At the age of 16, he was apprenticed to a silversmith. Later, he joined his father in his London shop.

Shrubsole has sold many of the major pieces of silver now in private collections and American Museums as well as to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum of London, the Goldsmith’s Hall and the Gilbert Collection at Somerset House.

For information, 212-501-3000.