The 2023 MacDowell National Benefit

About our Honoree

Fairfax Dorn is the co-founder and artistic director of Ballroom Marfa, a non-profit contemporary art museum and residency space dedicated to boundary-pushing and site-inspired work spanning visual art, film, music, and performance. In partnership with Ballroom Marfa’s co-founder Virginia Lebermann and Executive Director Daisy Nam, she oversees the creative vision of the organization. Dorn helped conceptualize the organization’s residency program, Ballroom Sessions — The Farther Place, which formally launched in 2020 as a response to the needs of artists. The program encourages cross-disciplinary processes, allows artists to explore nascent ideas, and often culminates in newly commissioned work. In 2017, Dorn established Fairfax Dorn Projects, a design collective synthesizing art and interiors. Dorn is a board member of Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX; co-chair of the Judd Foundation, Marfa, TX and New York, NY; the African Environmental Film Foundation, Kenya and New York, NY; Calder Gardens, Philadelphia, PA; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. Dorn received E. William Doty Distinguished Alumna Award from the University of Texas in February of 2022 and ArtTable’s 25th Future Women Leadership Award in April of 2005. Dorn holds a bachelor of arts and fine arts degree from the University of Texas in Austin. Dorn is currently working on a publication of Ballroom Marfa’s 20-year history with Monacelli Press.

Marian MacDowell Arts Advocacy Award

The Marian MacDowell Arts Advocacy Award was created to honor those who profoundly and uniquely support artists, aligning with our founder Marian MacDowell’s legacy and her championship of artists as they create bold new works that spark our imagination, illuminate our world, and celebrate our humanity.

In 2020, the inaugural award was presented to Ava DuVernay and ARRAY, a multi-platform media company and arts collective based in Los Angeles that amplifies independent films by Black artists, people of color, and women filmmakers globally. In 2021, the award was presented to Mahogany L. Browne and Urban Word NYC, one of the oldest and most comprehensive youth literary arts organizations in the country. In 2022, MacDowell Fellow and founder of Anonymous Was A Woman, Susan Unterberg, was presented with the award for her advocacy and philanthropy around gender equity in the arts.

Benefit Committee Co-Chairs

Katie Firth and Jonathan Bank
Christine and Todd Fisher
Darrell and Robin Harvey
Amy Davidson Sorkin and David Sorkin

Host Committee

Michael Almereyda*
Winsome and Claude Arpels
David Baum and Terry Reeves
Sofia A. Blanchard
Eleanor Briggs
Rosanne Cash*
Liz Cohen*
Hernan Diaz*
Amelia Dunlop and Andrew Krivak
Andrea Elliot*
Elizabeth and Russell Gaudreau
Gerald and Teresa Gartner
Jeannie Suk Gersen* and Jacob Gersen
Marc Glimcher
Andrew Sean Greer*
Lauren Groff*
John Hargraves and Nancy Newcomb
Sky Hopinka*
Lewis Hyde*
Rashid Johnson
Starlee Kine*
Virginia Lebermann
Min Jin Lee
Kalup Linzy*
Monica and Michael Lehner
Robert and Stephanie Olmsted
David Remnick
Deb Seager
Andrew and Barbara Senchak
Arabelle Sicardi* and Wendy Fok*
Julius Tapper and Enzo Gouedar
Peter and Catherine Wirth

*notes MacDowell Fellow or Medalist
**all lists as of 08/30/2023