MacArthur Foundation to celebrate 35th anniversary of “genius awards”

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the MacArthur Fellows Program – more familiarly known as “the genius grants” – and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation plans to celebrate with a year-long series of performances, discussions, and other events.

The festivities will be held in Chicago and other cities throughout the country as the Foundation collaborates with a wide-ranging group of partners, including Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival, Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and New York City’s 92nd Street Y. Most of the events will be open to the public for free or at low cost. Video of many events will be made available online.

In a prepared statement, Cecilia Conrad, managing director of the MacArthur Fellows Program noted: “Working across every field imaginable, MacArthur Fellows capture the public imagination and inspire people to nurture creativity in their own lives and communities. This year-long celebration will showcase Fellows’ work, foster new collaborations, and enable these highly creative people to further inspire us all.”

Programming is under development and subject to change; but it is expected to include the following events as well as others to be announced later.

• Public artist Rick Lowe will deliver a lecture on “Art in the Social Context” at Stanford University’s Haas Center for Public Service as part of the Mimi and Peter E. Haas Distinguished Visitor program(Stanford, CA, Feb. 4).
• The College Art Association will host a discussion with photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier and public artist Rick Lowe as part of its 104th Annual Conference (Washington, DC, Feb. 5).
• The Poetry Foundation will present the Chicago-based collective Every House Has a Door’s adaptation of a work by poet Jay Wright (Chicago, Feb. 20).
• In conjunction with an exhibition of her work, the Whitney Museum of American Art will host a discussion with documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras (New York City, Feb.).
• Sixth & I, a historic synagogue and cultural event space, will present a panel discussion on immigration featuring writers Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Aleksandar Hemon and Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy Council Cecilia Muñoz (Washington, DC, March 7).
• New York’s 92nd Street Y will present a panel discussion featuring MacArthur Fellows (New York, March).
• Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry will host MacArthur Fellows for events marking National Robotics Weeks, including Jr. Science Cafes, a public conversation, and robotics demonstrations (Chicago, April 2).
• The Poetry Foundation will host a reading by poet and writer Alice Fulton (Chicago, May 24).
• The Economic Club of Chicago will feature two conversation pairings with arts entrepreneur Claire Chase and music educator Aaron Dworkin as well as computational biologist John Novembre and historian Tara Zahra (Chicago, May 25).

• Wingspread will host a public event featuring MacArthur Fellows working on issues of interest to the Johnson Foundation and the Racine community (Racine, May).
• The Chicago Humanities Festival will host a one-day series of programs highlighting the work of MacArthur Fellows. (Chicago, May).
• MacArthur Fellows will be featured in a plenary session at the annual convention of Americans for the Arts (Boston, June).

• Orchestra conductor and MacArthur Fellow Marin Alsop is designing three free evenings of performances in conjunction with the Grant Park Music Festival that will showcase MacArthur Fellows working in music and science, including cellist Alisa Weilerstein, violinist Regina Carter, and composer Osvaldo Golijov (Chicago, July).
• The Harris Theater will host a free, two-night dance performance series featuring curated works created by MacArthur Fellows, including Kyle Abraham, Merce Cunningham, Michelle Dorrance, Mark Morris, and Shen Wei (Chicago, Sept. 16 and 17 or 18).
• The Chicago Humanities Festival will incorporate MacArthur Fellows into its regular annual programming (Chicago, Sept.).
• The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts will host two free public performances by MacArthur Fellows through its Millennium Stage series (Washington, DC, Oct.).
• Conservation biologist Claire Kremen will speak at as part of the Women in Science series at The Field Museum (Chicago, Nov. 2).

Also during the yearlong anniversary MacArthur Fellows will field questions from the public in reddit ask-me-anything sessions and appear on other digital platforms.

The MacArthur Fellowships recognize exceptionally creative individuals with a track record of achievement and the potential for significant contributions in the future. Fellows each receive a stipend of $625,000, which comes with no stipulations or reporting requirements and allows recipients maximum freedom to follow their own creative visions. Since 1981, 942 people have been named MacArthur Fellows. They are selected through a rigorous process that has involved thousands of expert and anonymous nominators, evaluators, and selectors over the years.

A calendar of 35^th anniversary events, updated regularly, is available at www.macfound.org/fellows35. The hashtag for the anniversary on social media is #Fellows35.