Tara Donovan Attendance Booming at Boston’s ICA A Day in the Life: Gary Tinterow Smash Success 2008 in Review: Trends of the Year Uncommon Art (Un)Natural Order Professional Feel, but Mixed Market, at ShContemporary

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In addition to Donovan, best known for her ambitious installations made up of seas of everyday materials, the arts-related recipients include New Yorker music critic Alex Ross, fiber artist Mary Jackson, the Nigerian-born fiction writer Chimamanda Adichie, violinist Leila Josefowicz, stage lighting designer Jennifer Tipton, and saxophonist Miguel Zenón.

The $500,000 prizes, awarded to people "who demonstrate exceptional creativity and promise," are administered in five annual installments of $100,000, with no strings attached. The selection process begins with hundreds of anonymous, carefully selected nominators who choose people from various fields; these are then reviewed by a 12-member selection committee.