Our daily round-up of news from the art world
$250,000 Gish Prize goes to Meredith Monk | The 2017 edition of the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize has been awarded to Meredith Monk. The 74-year-old New York-born artist is celebrated for her work across disciplines, from singing and composing to choreography, filmmaking and performance art. At $250,000, the annual Gish Prize is one of the biggest arts honours in the USA. Past recipients of the award, which was established in 1994 to honour those who have ‘made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world’, include the architect Frank Gehry; novelists Chinua Achebe and Isabel Allende; and artists including Shirin Neshat, Laurie Anderson and Trisha Brown.
Whitney Museum plans permanent David Hammons installation on Hudson River | Following last week’s news that Pier 55, Barry Diller’s embattled project to construct a floating park on the Hudson River, has been scrapped, it has emerged that the Whitney Museum of American Art is planning its own permanent land-and-water installation at a nearby site. The current proposal is for new public artwork by prominent American artist David Hammons, to be located opposite the museum at Pier 52. The institution’s director Adam Weinberg confirmed the project to the New York Times, but noted that ‘[w]e followed everything that happened to Pier 55’ and the proposal was ‘only in its earliest stages’, with an initial presentation to the local community board scheduled for 4 October.
Witte de With announces Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy as new director | The Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art has announced the appointment of a new director: Mexican curator Sofía Hernández Chong Cuy, who joins the Rotterdam institution from the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros. Hernández Chong Cuy will begin her new role in the new year, succeeding Defne Ayas, who has led the Witte de With since 2012. In 2018 the institution will be renamed to remove the reference to 17th-century Dutch coloniser Witte Corneliszoon de With.
POWarts founder Sara Kay opens Lower East Side gallery | Sara Kay, a former director at White Cube in London and founder of the Professional Organization for Women in the Arts (POWarts), is now opening her own gallery, Artnet reports. Sara Kay Gallery on New York’s Lower East Side will open at the end of September with an inaugural exhibition of outsider art from the collection of Audrey B. Heckler.
Jasper Johns’ Connecticut home and studio will become an artists’ retreat | The town of Sharon in northwest Connecticut has approved a proposal submitted by local resident and artist Jasper Johns to transform his property, where he has lived and worked since the 1990s, into an artists’ retreat following his death. The retreat, which will be closed to the public except for special events, is intended to provide a live-work space for between 18 and 24 artists at a time, supported by an endowment left by Johns.