The High Museum honored artist Alison Saar with the annual David C. Driskell Prize last week, marking two decades of the first national award celebrating contributions to the field of African American art. With a live performance by musician John Legend and a bespoke award designed by David Yurman, the evening brought together Atlanta tastemakers, arts leaders, and cultural mainstays to commemorate Saar’s enduring impact.
The Scene: The gala inducted Alison Saar into the company of artists including Amy Sherald, Mark Bradford, and Rashid Johnson with the 2025 David C. Driskell Prize. “At a time when many of the civil rights milestones achieved by previous generations—by our mothers and grandmothers—are being threatened or dismantled, the Driskell Prize empowers Black artists and art historians to push back,” Saar noted last May, upon the announcement of her award recognition.
The Locale: Designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architects Renzo Piano and Richard Meier, the High Museum is home to over 20,000 works of art, with a special emphasis on artists of the American South, as well as 19th and 20th-century fine and decorative arts.
The Crowd: Special guests descended upon the High Museum to fête the night away, including curators Liz Andrews, Patrick Eugène, Storm Ascher, Melissa Messina, Adrienne L. Childs, and Karen Comer Lowe; artists Chase Hall, Tariku Shiferaw, Patrick Eugene, and Genevieve Gaignard; former fashion editor Robin Givhan; activist Martin Luther King III; collector and patron Dr. Joy Simmons; and producer Zak Wallace.
Memorable Moment: The High Museum of Art’s director, Randall Suffolk, also announced that in Spring 2026, the High Museum will present Amy Sherald’s “American Sublime”—a major retrospective by the 2018 Driskell Prize winner and cover star of CULTURED‘s inaugural Artists on Artists issue.
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