The Kresge Foundation in Troy, Michigan, has named Charles McGee of Detroit the recipient of the inaugural Kresge Eminent Artist Award, which includes a cash prize of $50,000.

The award is part of the $8.8 million Kresge Arts in Detroit initiative, which works to promote, develop, and financially support individual artists, arts and culture organizations, and arts-infrastructure groups in Detroit's tri-county area. Administered by the College for Creative Studies, the award honors one exceptional Detroit artist each year for his or her professional achievements, cultural contributions, and commitment to the local arts community.

McGee, who turns 84 on December 15, established an artists' collective in the city in 1969; founded the Charles McGee School of Art, which operated from 1969 to 1974; and co-founded the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit. For eighteen years, he taught art at Eastern Michigan University, where he helped to chronicle African-American life in the urban United States and offered social commentary on the ills of war, poverty, and civil unrest.

"Charles McGee exemplifies what it means to be eminent and what it means to be a Detroiter," said Kresge Foundation president Rip Rapson. "He is an artist of international renown who in his life and his work is energetic, passionate, always probing, and eager to reinvent. It is fitting that he be named the first Kresge Eminent Artist."