ART:21—ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
WINS PRESTIGIOUS 2007 PEABODY AWARD.

April 3, 2008 | Season Four of Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century has been honored with a George Foster Peabody Award — the premiere international prize in electronic media — in the 67th Annual Peabody Awards Competition.

The Art:21 series was recognized for providing “a unique forum for the display, analysis and appreciation of myriad forms of contemporary visual art” by the University of Georgia’s Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, which has administered the Peabody Award program since its inception in 1940. The Season Four episode Protest, featuring the contemporary artists Jenny Holzer, Alfredo Jaar, An-My Lê, and Nancy Spero, was singled out for its examination of the ways in which contemporary artists picture and question war, express outrage, and empathize with the suffering of others.

Selected from over 1,000 entries, Art:21 is the first visual art series to win a Peabody since 2002, and among only a handful of visual art programs to claim such an honor in the Peabody’s history. Art:21 is one of thirty-five recipients honored from the world of news, entertainment and radio, including such high profile programs as 60 Minutes, NOVA, Frontline, Planet Earth, Project Runway, The Colbert Report, 30 Rock, and Mad Men.

“The latest Peabody recipients reflect great diversity in content, genre and source of origination,” said Horace Newcomb, director of the Peabody Awards, at the announcement ceremony. “The Peabody Awards, in all their diverse and innovative examples, are models for what can and should be done across the board.” The Peabody Awards, the oldest honor in electronic media, recognizes distinguished achievement and meritorious public service.

A nonprofit contemporary art organization, Art21, Inc. produces the biennial series Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century for PBS — the longest-running television program on contemporary visual art and artists in the United States — as well as books, internet-based resources, educational materials, and public programs. An unparalleled document of visual art at the turn of the century, the Art:21 series has profiled 72 contemporary artists from diverse cultural, geographic, generational, and artistic backgrounds. Widely available on DVD and online (www.pbs.org/art21), the Art:21 series has been seen by over 16 million PBS viewers, is distributed internationally to over 50 countries, and has
transformed visual arts curriculum at schools and universities. Season Five of the the Art:21 series is currently in development for broadcast in Fall 2009.

In addition to the 2007 Peabody Award, the Emmy-nominated Art:21 series has received the CINE Golden Eagle Award, a Gold Hugo from the Chicago International Television Competition, and a Bronze Remi Award from the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival.

A special screening of Protest, followed by a discussion with featured artist An-My Lê, will be held Monday, May 5, 6:30pm at the Mid-Manhattan branch of the The New York Public Library.

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