Shirin Neshat Honored at Bklyn Museum's Women in the Arts Fundraiser 11/16

Shirin Neshat, world-renowned photographer and video artist, will be honored at the ninth annual Women in the Arts luncheon on Wednesday, November 16, 2011. Proceeds from the event, which is organized by the Museum's Community Committee, a volunteer organization, will benefit the many artistic and cultural programs offered by the Brooklyn Museum and its Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art.

The program will begin at 11:30 a.m. with an introduction by Museum Board of Trustees President Stephanie Ingrassia, followed by a conversation between Shirin Neshat and Catherine Morris, Curator of the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art. The program will conclude with the presentation of the 2011 Women in the Arts Award to Ms. Neshat. A reception and luncheon in the Museum's Beaux-Arts Court will follow from 1 to 3 p.m.

Tickets for Women in the Arts 2011 are $175 (Friend), $300 (Supporter), $500 (Host), $1,800 (Advocate), $3,000 (Patron), and $5,000 (Benefactor). For further information and to purchase tickets, contact the Community Committee at (718) 789-2493 or by e-mail to edith.frazier@brooklynmuseum.org.

Shirin Neshat is an award-winning photographer and video artist and is considered to be among the most innovative and provocative contemporary artists of our time. Born in Qazvin, Iran, in 1957, she left her native country at the age of seventeen to study in California. She attended Dominican College and U.C. Berkley where she received her BA and MFA in 1983.

After graduate school, Neshat moved to New York City. In 1990, she returned to Iran to visit her family, a visit she describes as a shocking experience. As a way of coping with the vast differences in the culture of pre and post-revolutionary Iran, she began her first body of work, the Women of Allah series.

As a photographer and video artist, Neshat became known for her photographs of Muslim women overlaid with Farci calligraphy. Her recognition grew in 1999 when she won the International Award of the XLVIII Venice Biennial with her works Turbulent and Rapture. In 2006, she was awarded The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, one of the richest prizes in the arts.

Other works such as Soliloquy, Fervor, Passage, Logic of the Birds, and Zarin: Possession can be seen in museums and galleries around the world.

Shirin Neshat lives and works in New York City.

Previous Women in the Arts honorees include Kara Walker, Kiki Smith, Cindy Sherman, Annie Leibovitz, Maya Lin, the Guerrilla Girls, Dr. Elizabeth A. Sackler, and Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell.