How Much Do Artists Awards and Museum Rankings Really Matter?

There are awards and rankings for almost everything, and they’re everywhere. The automotive industry has the J.D. Power awards. Comms professionals vie for Cannes Lions. The NAMA Foundation, which celebrates advancements in the “convenience services industry,” grants a Coffee Legend of the Year award. Travel + Leisure publishes lists of the best beaches, Forbes ranks mattresses and the Taste Atlas Guide for the World’s Best Food has even identified the best potatoes in the world. The art industry, unsurprisingly, also has a wealth of awards and rankings.

This past July, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, received a major nod from U.S. News & World Report, which ranked it among the 26 best museums in the country. The company it keeps is varied, including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, the Museum of Graffiti in Miami, the Field Museum in Chicago, the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C., the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle and the Mob Museum in Las Vegas. The ranking is a “wonderful validation of all the hard work that has been done here,” David M. Roche, director of the museum, told Observer. The magazine is read nationally, and “within a day or two, we started receiving texts and emails from donors, colleagues at other institutions, state legislators, from foundations and corporations. People pay attention to these things.”

People also pay attention to artist awards, though just how much varies widely. Some awards (like the much-coveted Turner Prize) have the power to change careers; others, not so much. Simply being named one of the five finalists in 1990 for the Hubbard Museum of the American West’s Hubbard Art Award for Excellence was a game-changer for watercolorist Dean Mitchell. He didn’t win the $250,000 grand prize—it went to painter Howard Terpning—but the exposure and the fact that museum founders R.D. and Joan Dale Hubbard purchased his entry (Rowena) for $25,000 elevated his stature enormously. Before then, $10,000 was the most anyone had paid for one of his works.

The Hubbard Art Award was discontinued after 1991, and the museum closed in 2020, but Mitchell still regards the experience as a significant milestone because of “the caliber of the artists invited, the prize money involved and the fact that it was promoted so extensively,” he told Observer. “After the Hubbard, politicians contacted me, wanting to be seen with me. I had gallery owners and museum curators asking to show my work. And I could raise my prices in the marketplace.”

For photographer Wendy Ewald, being named a MacArthur Fellow in 1992 had a similar impact. The substantial cash award, now $800,000, is paid over five years, allowing artists, scholars and scientists who win what is often called the “genius grant” to pursue their work with fewer financial worries. Winning the MacArthur grant “made a huge difference for me,” she told Observer. “Up until then, people didn’t understand what I was doing, so it was such a relief to find out that someone did understand.”

With the money, Ewald was able to travel more—she has photographed people on five continents—and the visibility of winning the grant led to more opportunities to exhibit her images. “It has made my life so much easier,” she added—even 33 years later. “People know that I won the MacArthur and think, ‘she’s the real deal.’”

The most life-changing artist awards are those that come with a high-profile solo exhibition, a prestigious residency, a major grant or enough unrestricted funds to make working a day job unnecessary for a time. The now-discontinued biennial Hugo Boss Prize, established in 1996 by the Guggenheim and Hugo Boss, awarded not only a $100,000 purse but also a solo exhibition at the museum. Winners included Simone Leigh, Deana Lawson, Danh Vo and Anicka Yi—all names likely familiar to today’s contemporary collectors.

But other artist awards are little more than pats on the back. Dona Ann McAdams, a photographer who lives on a goat farm in Vermont, was named the 2025 recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts by the Vermont Arts Council in July, an accolade that comes with no cash. Her selection hasn’t led to “any messages on my website asking to buy my photographs.” Little has changed in her life, although “now all my neighbors say, ‘Oh, that’s what she does.’ The hay guy came with some bushels of hay and said ‘Oh, congratulations.’ That’s something.”

Lorraine Watry, a watercolor artist and current president of the National Watercolor Society, has won awards from the American Watercolor Society, the Transparent Watercolor Society of America and the National Watercolor Society, and “in my experience, there has been no benefit to my career. I may let a collector know that a certain painting has won an award, but that award doesn’t get anyone to buy something.” She prefers awards that offer cash or merchandise—usually paint supplies—over ribbons and certificates.

Joel Popadics, a watercolor artist and current president of the American Watercolor Society, stated that awards such as those AWS offers have value to younger, emerging artists. “Getting something that says First Place, Second Place or Third Place lends younger artists credibility,” he said. “They may hope that the award impresses dealers and collectors, but it really reflects a consensus of opinion that your art is good.”

The problem, he said, is artists entering show after show in search of awards. “Entering shows at the start of your career, I recommend that. You see what other artists are doing, other artists see what you are doing and dealers and collectors see what you and everyone else are doing. But, after a while, you have to question why you are still entering these shows.”

Beaches, mattresses and potatoes don’t get cash awards, and they don’t have feelings to hurt if they lose, but artists generally need the money and often feel more hopeful about their prospects when acknowledged. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans recently concluded its annual Louisiana Contemporary juried exhibition, where four of the 50 artists selected were honored with awards. The first, second and third place winners received $1,000, $750 and $500, respectively, while Karen Ocker, who was awarded Best in Show, received $5,000. “I can’t really speak to whether awards are important to prospective buyers, dealers or curators,” Ocker told Observer. They are, however, “encouraging for artists to keep creating.”

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