The Arts Club of Washington is a private club to promote the Arts in Washington, D.C.
Founded by Bertha Noyes in May 1916, its first president was Henry Kirke Bush-Brown; Mathilde Mueden Leisenring was among its original members, as were Susan Brown Chase, Catharine Carter Critcher, Lola Sleeth Miller, Bertha E. Perrie, and Mary Gine Riley.
It is located at the Cleveland Abbe House. Since 2006, the club has awarded the Marfield Prize, also known as the National Award for Arts Writing, for nonfiction books about the arts written for a broad audience.
Programs The club supports visual, performing, and literary arts in Washington, D.C. It hosts a noon-time concert series. It awards arts scholarships.
The Marfield Prize, National Award for Arts Writing The Marfield Prize, also known as the National Award for Arts Writing, is given annually by the Arts Club of Washington to nonfiction books about the arts written for a broad audience. Intended to help increase access to the arts, the Prize "celebrates prose that is lucid, luminous, clear, and inspiring—writing that creates a strong connection with arts and artists."
The Prize of $10,000, which the Club asserts is the only one of its kind in the country, honors nonfiction books first published in the U.S., by a single author who is living at the time of the book's nomination. First given in 2006, the prize's endowment was established by long-time Arts Club member Jeannie S. Marfield in honor of Florence Berryman and Helen Wharton.
The award is given to the author of a nonfiction book about any artistic discipline (visual, literary, performing, or media arts, as well as cross-disciplinary works. Works of art history and criticism, biographies and memoirs, and essays are all eligible. Anthologies, creative works of fiction or poetry, books for children, exhibition catalogs and self-published books are not eligible.
Members of the club noticed that there was a lack of "good, accessible writing about the arts," according to former award administrator Sarah Browning. Club members decided to use a bequest by longtime member Jeannie S. Marfield to remedy the situation. In addition to the annual winners, the Club publishes the names of several finalists.
List of winners Year awardedWinnerTitlePublisherPublished year2020Maggie DohertyThe Equivalents: A Story of Art, Female Friendship, and Liberation in the 1960s Knopf2019Andrew McConnell StottWhat Blest Genius?: The Jubilee That Made Shakespeare W. W. Norton & Company2018Wendy LesserYou say to brick: the life of Louis Kahn Farrar, Straus and Girou20172017Rachel CorbettYou Must Change Your Life W. W. Norton20162016Michael Riedel Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for BroadwaySimon & Schuster20152015Philip Gefter Wagstaff: Before and After MapplethorpeLiveright 20142014Sherill Tippins Inside the Dream Palace: The Life and Times of New York's Legendary Chelsea HotelHoughton Mifflin Harcourt20132013Anne-Marie O'ConnorThe Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt's Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer Knopf 20122012Yael Tamar LewinNight's Dancer: The Life of Janet CollinsWesleyan University Press20112011R. Tripp Evans Grant Wood: A LifeKnopf 20102010Linda Gordon Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits W. W. Norton & Co. 20092009Michael Sragow Victor Fleming: An American Movie MasterPantheon Books 2008 2008 Brenda Wineapple White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson Knopf 2008 2008 Jenny Uglow Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas BewickFarrar, Straus & Giroux 20072007Scott Reynolds Nelson Steel Drivin' Man—John Henry: The Untold StoryOxford University Press 2006
References
External links Official website Arts Club of Washington, D.C. Collection, 1916–1990, DC Library Arts Club of Washington scrapbooks, 1916–1991, Archives of American Art