Division of Creative Arts

Brandeis Creative Arts Award and Medal

The Brandeis Creative Arts Award recognizes excellence in the arts and the lives and works of distinguished, active American artists. The award was established in 1956, just eight years after the University’s founding, at a time when there was no comparable award in higher education.

The first recipients were Stuart Davis, for painting; Hallie Flanagan Davis, for theater; and William Carlos Williams, for poetry. Subsequent recipients included Aaron Copland, Gunther Schuller, Mark Rothko, Georgia O’Keeffe, Sam Shepard and Twyla Tharp.

The Creative Arts Award and residency, a program of the Brandeis Division of Creative Arts, is made possible by the Poses Fund.