ATLANTA, GA.- The High Museum of Art has named scholar Krista A. Thompson, Assistant Professor of African Diaspora and African Art at Northwestern University and independent curator, as the 2009 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize. Named after the renowned African American artist and art scholar, the Driskell Prize recognizes a scholar or artist in the beginning or middle of his or her career whose work makes an original and important contribution to the field of African American art or art history. Thompson, the fifth recipient of the Driskell Prize, will receive the award at the Driskell Prize Dinner in Atlanta on April 20, 2009. In celebration of the fifth anniversary, the High will host an exhibition of David C. Driskell’s works, Evolution: Five Decades of Printmaking by David C. Driskell, on view April 21 through August 2, 2009.

In addition to teaching positions at Northwestern University and the University of Illinois, Krista A. Thompson has mounted exhibitions as an independent curator at museums in the U.S. and in the Caribbean. Some of her most notable recent projects include “Developing Blackness: Studio Photographs of ‘Over the Hill’ Nassau in the Independence Era” (National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, 2008), “An Account of a Voyage to Jamaica with the Unnatural History of That Place: An Exhibition by Fred Wilson” (Institute of Jamaica, 2007), and “Big House/Disclosure” (Northwestern University, 2006).

Established by the High in 2005, the David C. Driskell Prize is the first national award to honor and celebrate contributions to the field of African American art and art history. Past recipients include artist Xaviera Simmons (2008), scholar/curator Franklin Sirmans (2007), artist Willie Cole (2006) and scholar Dr. Kellie Jones (2005). A cash award of $25,000 accompanies the prize.