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New York–based mostly nonprofit Unbiased Curators Worldwide (ICI) has introduced creator Uzodinma Iweala because the winner of its 2023 Leo Award. Iweala since 2018 has served as CEO of New York’s African Middle, with whose workforce he shares the prize. Beneath his management, the middle has labored to vary the worldwide understanding of Africa and its diaspora, and of the function performed by individuals of African descent. “Iweala and his workforce have been instrumental in fostering dialogue, breaking down boundaries, and amplifying various voices from the African continent,” mentioned ICI in a press launch. “They’ve reworked The Africa Middle right into a vibrant celebration of the richness and dynamism of African cultures, and created a brand new civic mannequin for cultural establishments. Their programming promotes cross-cultural understanding and collaboration, and has included views from the political, financial, literary, and culinary worlds in addition to the inventive subject.”
“All of us at ICI are delighted to honor Uzo and his workforce with ICI’s 2023 Leo Award,” mentioned Renaud Proch, ICI’s govt and inventive director, in a press release. “They’ve been inspirational collaborators. We’re grateful for our significant partnership with the Africa Middle, which can proceed to play an vital half in shaping our packages for years to come back. Uzo’s imaginative and prescient and the values manifested within the heart—collaboration, empowerment, international solidarity, generative considering—resonate in so some ways with ICI’s personal mission.”
Earlier than taking on his function on the Africa Middle, Iweala was CEO and editor in chief of Ventures Africa journal, which he additionally cofounded. He’s moreover well-known for his writing centering African and diasporic experiences: He’s the creator of the novel Communicate No Evil (2018), the story of a queer Nigerian American youth dwelling in Washington, DC, which investigates problems with race, class, gender, sexuality, nationality, and diaspora; and the nonfiction Our Type of Folks (2012), about AIDS in Nigeria. His 2005 debut, the novel Beasts of No Nation, a few West African boy compelled to turn out to be a toddler soldier, gained the Artwork Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, a class of the Los Angeles Instances E-book Prize, and was finally tailored as a movie.
Named for famend artwork vendor Leo Castelli, the Leo Award is given in recognition of an distinctive contribution to the sector of up to date artwork. Previous recipients of the prize embody curator Candice Hopkins, collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos, gallerist Marian Goodman, Los Angeles County Museum of Artwork director Michael Govan, filmmaker Steve McQueen, designer Miuccia Prada, and collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo.
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