Prize Winner 2020:
Elisa Turner
During the 1980s Elisa Turner began writing for ARTnews as Miami correspondent and for the Miami Herald as art critic. Her commentary mirrored the area’s diversity, enhanced by proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America and growth of Art Basel Miami Beach. For her proposed book drawn from 20 years of personal Miami Herald archives, she received a 2024 MIA Artist Grant from the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and 2023 Ellies Creator Award from Oolite Arts. Honors include the 2021 and 2020 First Place for Arts Commentary & Criticism from Florida’s Sunshine State Society of Professional Journalists, and the 2019 Leadership Award of the Florida Chapter of ArtTable. A contributor to ArtBurst Miami, she has written for many publications including Burnaway, Fine Art Globe, FIU ArtSpeak, Hyperallergic, and Miami Rail. Distinguishing her 21-year Miami Herald career were assignments to Havana, Haiti, the Venice Biennale and Art Basel. Commissioned essays include “Milestones in Miami’s Coming of Age” for Making Miami: The Story of an Art Community (Jayaram Law/Exile Books, 2023) and foreword to Miami Contemporary Artists by Paul Clemence and Julie Davidow (Schiffer Books, 2007).