The Kresge Foundation has announced the selection of painter and educator Shirley Woodson as its 2021 Kresge Eminent Artist.

Awarded through the Kresge Arts in Detroit program, the award recognizes an artist's lifetime achievement and includes a $50,000 prize, production of a short film about the artist, and publication of a monograph. Woodson's body of work over a career spanning six decades includes paintings and collages layered with references to a love of folklore, cultural iconography, and elements of nature, with a signature style that includes the blending of bold colors with precise yet wildly expressive techniques.

Widely honored for her decades-long work to broaden education and exhibition opportunities for African-American artists and champion art as an essential lens into Detroit's history and culture, Woodson co-founded the Michigan chapter of the National Conference of Artists, the nation's oldest arts organization focused on nurturing, developing, and promoting opportunities for Black visual artists.

"I know many of the artists who have been selected over the years. I'm thrilled to be among them and to see that Kresge is continuing to genuinely support all that art adds to a community," said Woodson. "We're so fortunate in Detroit to have an arts community that's never stopped."

"Since its inception more than a decade ago, the Kresge Eminent Artist award has elevated artists for their contributions to both their art form and the cultural community of metropolitan Detroit," said Kresge Foundation president and CEO Rip Rapson. "Shirley Woodson has taught and mentored, cultivating and expanding creative opportunities for successive generations. She has organized artists and curated their exhibitions. And she is an artist who leads by engaged example. Her superlative technique is rooted in inviting the viewer to see the world in a different way, whether the work is abstract, figurative, or something of a blend. Her impact through all these channels underscores with enormous power the role that arts can, and do, play in building and preserving vibrant communities."