“The arts, especially through the leadership of Mrs. McDermott, have come to play an increasingly important role at UT Dallas. This award further emphasizes that role and ensure that artists in all mediums — architects, photographers, dancers, digital artists, choreographers, poets, novelists — will regularly visit UT Dallas and the Dallas metroplex.”
Richard Brettell
The Brettell Award was founded in 2016 with a gift from Margaret McDermott
The Richard Brettell Award in the Arts at UT Dallas, established in 2016 with a gift from Mrs. Margaret McDermott, recognizes the essential and fundamental role in the arts in the life of the university. The award honors an individual working in or between any of the broad spectrum of artistic endeavors, including the visual arts, music, literature, performance, and architecture/design.
Given every other year, the award consists of a prize of $150,000 and a week’s residence on the UT Dallas campus and in Dallas, during which the awardee will present a major public lecture and interact in a variety of venues with the students, staff and faculty of UT Dallas and with the larger arts community of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
Prospective awardees will be nominated by the Brettell Award Advisory Committee, composed of international leaders in arts and culture, with the selection of the awardee being made by an Executive Committee composed of university and community leaders.
The concept of the Brettell Award is inspired by the Eugene McDermott Award in the Arts at MIT, created by the McDermott Family at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974. The MIT McDermott Award is also made every other year, and it is planned to schedule the two events in alternating years.
Brettell Award in the Arts Committee Members
The University of Texas at Dallas
Chair, Nils Roemer
Interim Dean of the School of the Arts and Humanities, and the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication
Michael L. Thomas
Director of the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History, Professor
Amy Lewis Hofland
Senior Director of the Crow Museum of Asian Art
Pierrette Lacour
Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History Program Coordinator
Dallas Community Leaders
Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller
Founder and CEO of Harwood International, The Samurai Collection; community representatives
Joan Davidow
American Contemporary Art Expert, Gallery SITE131 Co-Founder and Director/Curator
Ian Derrer
The Dallas Opera General Director and CEO
Kim Noltemy
President and CEO of Dallas Symphony
Quin Mathews
Filmmaker and journalist
Quin Mathews Film
Charles Santos
Executive Director/Artistic Director TITAS/DANCE UNBOUND
For more information, please contact Desiree Johnson at desiree.johnson@utdallas.edu.
