Cheryl Finley Wins 2026 David C. Driskell Prize
4May 27, 2026
Atlanta’sHigh Museum of Arthas announced Spelman College professorCheryl Finleyas the winner of its 2026 David C.Driskell Prize. Finley will receive an unrestricted $50,000 cash award and will be honored at a gala event to take place September 19 at the High Museum. Named after the renowned African American artist and scholar, the Driskell Prize honors outstanding contributions to the field of African American art and has been presented by the museum annually since 2005. Previous winners include Huey Copeland, Rashid Johnson, Naima J. Keith, and Amy Sherald.
Finley is the Walton Endowed professor in the department of art and visual culture at Spelman, where she has served as the director of the Atlanta University Center Art History + Curatorial Studies Collective since 2019. Through the collective, she has helped build one of the country’s most important pipelines for emerging Black arts professionals, scholars, and curators, connecting students from the world’s largest consortium of historically Black colleges and universities with leading cultural organizations and museums. Since 2013, Finley has co-organized Black Portraiture[s], a conference which assembles artists and educators from around the world to study African diasporic art and culture. She has contributed to numerous scholarly publications, journals and magazines and is the curator of the traveling exhibition “People Who Make the World Go ’Round: The Legacy ofSepiaMagazine” (2026–29) and, with Deborah Willis, the cocurator of “‘Free as They Want to Be’: Artists Committed to Memory” (2022–). Finley holds a BA from Wellesley College in Spanish and an MA and Ph.D. in African American studies and art history from Yale University.
“With this year’s award, the High is honored to support Finley’s distinguished career that sits at the intersection of scholarship and institutional change. Through her influential work, she has continuously invested in the next generation of visual arts leaders across Atlanta’s HBCU landscape and far beyond,” said High Museum director Rand Suffolk in a statement. “We deeply respect her dedication to foregrounding Black artists and expanding how African American art and art history are exhibited and understood, efforts we have long been committed to through the Driskell Prize and our partnership with the AUC Art Collective.”