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Anderson Ranch Arts Center to honor Simone Leigh, Jerry Saltz, Roberta Smith

Staff report
Simone Leigh
Courtesy photo

Anderson Ranch Arts Center will honor Simone Leigh with its 2020 International Artist Award, the nonprofit announced Monday.

Art critics Jerry Saltz and Roberta Smith, husband and wife and critics for New York Magazine and the New York Times respectively, will be honored with the Ranch’s Service to the Arts Award.

“I am grateful to receive this prestigious award,” Leigh said in the announcement, adding of her time at the Snowmass Village campus: “It was an honor to fire the Noborigama kiln with Takashi Nakazato and other members of the community. In my short time here, I have already started to have new ideas.”



A sculptor and multimedia artist, Leigh’s recent works include the 16-foot-tall bronze “Brick House” installation on the High Line in New York City, on view through September.

The prizes will be given at the Ranch’s 24th annual recognition dinner July 16.




“Every time I go to Anderson Ranch I want to change my life, attend all the classes and workshops and learn how to throw a pot, operate a lathe, weld metal, paint,” said Saltz, winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for criticism. “My heart beats faster there.”

Smith recalled the “debacle” of her own previous visit to Anderson Ranch to deliver a lecture, but called it “a place that has always seemed based on a larger, increasingly essential generosity: namely, that it is important to have artists teach other artists in the company of nature.”

The awards dinner is the Ranch’s biggest annual fundraising event and includes cocktails, dinner and a live auction. Leigh follows recent winners of the Ranch’s Artist Award like Ai Weiwei and Carrie Mae Weems.

“Having Simone, Jerry and Roberta, all internationally-recognized leaders in the art world, as our honorees, is thrilling as they have each spent considerable time on campus,” Ranch president and CEO Peter Waanders said in the announcement.

For information on tables and tickets, call Hailey Walsh at 970-924-5067.