SAN RAFAEL, Calif. –  ATADA is giving out three Lifetime Achievement Awards in February, 2012. The recipients are physicist and Pueblo pottery collector, scholar, and author Francis H. Harlow; Southwest Indian art dealers and collectors Lauris and Jim Phillips; and art dealer and American Indian art collector, patron, and benefactor Eugene V. Thaw.

These awards honor individuals who have devoted a significant part of their lives to the field of tribal arts. This is the second time these awards have been given; the first was in 2007.

Because none of the honorees is able to travel to San Rafael to accept an award, in lieu of an awards dinner, ATADA will devote a special portion of the Winter 2012 issue of the ATADA News to the winners. ATADA’s booth at Kim Martindale’s February 2012 Art of the Americas show in San Rafael, CA, February 24-26, will be decorated with pictures of and information about the award winners. A donation will be made in each honoree’s name to a Native American and/or Tribal art-related entity of his/her choosing.

The winners were chosen from a list of nominees generated by the membership and the board of directors; honorees were chosen from that list by the board.

ATADA was formed in 1988 to promote and further interest in the field of tribal arts. ATADA’s membership of dealers, collectors and curators is a Who’s Who of the American Indian and Tribal Art worlds.

ATADA board member Bob Bauver, who is an American Indian art dealer, collector, and author, was the first to propose honoring individuals who have made long-term contributions to studying and collecting American Indian and Tribal art. Former ATADA president/tribal art dealer Tom Murray believes these awards are “the equivalent in our field to the MacArthur Genius Award or the Nobel Prize.”

For more information, please see www.atada.org or contact ATADA at 415-927-3717.

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