On Thursday, October 29, 2026, the American Academy in Rome will host its annual New York Gala at the New York Public Library, bringing together the Academy community in support of the essential role of the arts and humanities in our societies today.
This year, the Centennial Medal will be awarded to Suzanne Deal Booth, Emily Wilson (2006 Fellow), and Fred Wilson (2020 Resident) in recognition of their significant contributions to the arts and humanities. We are honored to have this occasion to celebrate them and thank them for their profound service.
Suzanne Deal Booth: Conservation with A Cause
Honoree Suzanne Deal Booth is a philanthropist, arts advisor, director, and advocate committed to preservation and conversation projects around the world. Deal Booth was trained in conservation, studying at New York University and conducting postgraduate work at the Pompidou Foundation in Paris.
Her organization, The Friends of Heritage Preservation, which was founded in 1998, has catalyzed projects including the preservation of Donald Judd’s concrete artworks in Marfa, Texas; an oral history partnership with the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute; and a stone carving training program for Syrian refugees in Jordan.
Deal Booth has been a supporter and advocate for pioneering arts institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles; the Calder Foundation in Paris; The Menil Collection in Houston, Texas; and Ballroom Marfa in Marfa, Texas.
Deal Booth and her family established the Suzanne Deal Booth Rome Prize for Historic Preservation and Conservation at the American Academy in Rome in 2003, supporting the scholarship of conservators and scholars who wish to spend a year at the Academy in Rome. This year’s Suzanne Deal Booth Rome Prize Fellow is Ariel O'Connor, an Objects Conservator at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, who is working on a project about ancient inlay technology.
Emily Wilson: A Pioneering Classicist
Honoree Emily Wilson, 2006 Fellow in Renaissance & Early Modern Studies, is a classicist and translator, known for her poetic and pioneering translations of classics, including the Odyssey and the Iliad.
Wilson is the author of four books, including, notably, the first translation of the Odyssey into English by a female scholar, published in 2017. Her translation was named one of the New York Times’ 100 Most Notable Books of 2018 and was shortlisted for that year’s National Translation Award.
Her translation of the Iliad was published in 2023 and was named one of the best books of the year by publications including The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Guardian. In addition to numerous scholarly articles and other publications, she has translated works by Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca.
Wilson was awarded the MacArthur “Genius” Grant in 2019, recognizing her work bringing classical literature to a new audience and conveying its relevance to our time. She was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2020. Wilson is the chair of the Department of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she has taught since 2002.
Fred Wilson: Deconstructing to Explore and Explain
Honoree Fred Wilson, 2020 Resident, is a New York City-based interdisciplinary artist and activist known for his genre-spanning work, especially his commitment to deconstructing institutional archives, as well as cultural and racial hierarchies at large, in order to challenge predominant assumptions.
His pathbreaking exhibition, Mining the Museum (1992), at the Maryland Historical Society, investigated hundreds of objects in the museum’s collection, recontextualizing them and displaying them in provocative juxtapositions.
His practice ranges from installation, sculpture, painting, and photography to video and performance, and, beginning in 2001, explorations in glass in collaboration with American and Venetian glass masters. Wilson was awarded the MacArthur “Genius” Grant in 1999 and the 2024 Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 2003, Wilson represented the United States at the Venice Biennale with an exhibition titled Speak of Me As I Am, a re-working of Shakespeare's Othello. Wilson presented an opaque glass chandelier, photographs, and other sculptures in a naunced and cutting reflection on the history of the African diaspora during the Renaissance in Venice.