Icon Awards
The Arts Foundation of New Zealand established the Icon Awards as an honours system to celebrate and acknowledge New Zealand art-makers who have achieved the highest standards of artistic expression.
Limited to a living circle of 20, Icons are pioneers and leaders from all arts disciplines, living and working around the world. To date, a total of 21 artists have been acknowledged as Icons. In 2003, ten artists were honoured, six in 2005 and five in 2007. With the deaths of Janet Frame, Don Selwyn and Hone Tuwhare, the living circle stands at eighteen in 2008.
Each Icon receives a medallion and pin designed by stone sculptor John Edgar. The artist is gifted the pin in perpetuity, while the medallion is presented to a successor at a future Icon Award ceremony following the artist’s death.
In 2008 the Arts Foundation began commissioning oral histories from Icons. In time, the Foundation hopes that an oral history will be deposited with the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington covering the life of each Icon artist. This will ensure the artists’ stories are on public record and available for future generations.
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