Lillian Fairchild Award

A group photo of the newest winners.

From left: Department of English Chair Katherine Mannheimer, Lillian Fairchild Award winners Herb Smith, Missy Pfohl Smith, Quajay Donnell and Stephen Schottenfeld, and family member of Lillian Fairchild Douglas Fisher. / John Schlia Photography

Distinguished award returns, honors five local artists

By David Andreatta

 

A sculptor. A dancer. A musician. A photographer. A writer.

Five artists are the latest recipients of the distinguished Lillian Fairchild Award, a longstanding recognition of the Department of English bestowed to residents of the Rochester area for meaningful contributions to art and literature.

The award, which comes with a cash prize of $3,000, is typically granted to a single artist annually. This year, however, five artists are being honored due to the award being placed on hiatus during the pandemic.

Established in 1924 by University of Rochester Professor Herman L. Fairchild as a memorial to the artistic endeavors of his daughter, an accomplished designer who died of tuberculosis at the age of 32, the award has traditionally been announced on her birthday, Nov. 12. 

Previous winners include the modern dance choreographer Garth Fagan, acclaimed sculptor Albert Paley, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anthony Hecht.

A ceremony celebrating the newest five artists to join the list of luminaries was held on April 4 in the Hawkins-Carlson Room of the Rush Rhees Library.

And the winners are . . .

2019: Olivia Kim, sculptor of the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commemoration

Kim was the sculptor behind 13 statues of Frederick Douglass that were placed around Rochester in 2018 to celebrate the bicentennial of the firth of the famed abolitionist and orator who made the city his home.

Her creations were near replicas of a statue of Douglass by Stanley Edwards erected in 1899 that stands in Highland Park, and contributed to the subsequent national conversation about the subjects of historical monuments.

2020: Missy Pfohl Smith, founder and artistic director of the contemporary repertory company BIODANCE

Smith, a dancer, choreographer, and performer who directs the Program of Dance and Movement and the Institute for the Performing Arts at the University of Rochester, has established herself globally as an enthusiastic artistic collaborator.

Her site-specific and multi-disciplinary work, imbued with socially-conscious choreography, has been performed around the world, most recently in Finland, Germany, Greece, and Scotland. Smith serves on the board of the Rochester Fringe Festival, a festival for which she has also created critically-acclaimed shows.

2021: Herb Smith, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra trumpet player and founder of Herb’s City Trumpets

Smith, a native of Cincinnati, came to Rochester in 1987 to attend the Eastman School of Music, where he established himself as an accomplished classical musician and soloist and a jazz performer. Upon earning his bachelor’s degree, he landed a trumpet position with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and planted roots here.

Through his Herb’s City Trumpets, Smith mentors young people on playing music as a means of self-expression, developing social skills, and learning responsibility, and discipline.

2022: Quajay Donnell, photographer and writer

Donnell’s photographs and writings have been published in local and national publications and have contributed immensely to the public discourse on public art.

He is perhaps best known in Rochester for his stunning images of murals and street graffiti that elevate the artforms. He is the lead photographer for the ongoing mural project WALL\THERAPY and a staff photographer for Roc Paint Division, which offers employment and training to young developing artists.

2023: Stephen Schottenfeld, author and associate professor of English at the University of Rochester

Schottenfeld is the author of two novels, Bluff City Pawn and This Room Is Made of Noise, whose work has been published in numerous literary magazines and received special mentions by the Pushcart Prize and in the Best American Short Stories anthologies.

His narratives often trace the work lives of his characters — pawnbrokers, postal carriers, telephone repairmen, home inspectors, police detectives, to name a few — and explore how their professions carry a unique set of experiences and conflicts.

At the University, Schottenfeld teaches courses in fiction writing and contemporary literature, playwriting, and screenwriting.

 

About the Recipients

2023: Stephen Schottenfeld
Author and Associate Professor of English at the University of Rochester

Schottenfeld is the author of two novels, Bluff City Pawn and This Room Is Made of Noise, whose work has been published in numerous literary magazines and received special mentions by the Pushcart Prize and in the Best American Short Stories anthologies.

His narratives often trace the work lives of his characters — pawnbrokers, postal carriers, telephone repairmen, home inspectors, police detectives, to name a few — and explore how their professions carry a unique set of experiences and conflicts.

At the University, Schottenfeld teaches courses in fiction writing and contemporary literature, playwriting, and screenwriting.

2022: Quajay Donnell
Photographer and Writer

Donnell’s photographs and writings have been published in local and national publications and have contributed immensely to the public discourse on public art.

He is perhaps best known in Rochester for his stunning images of murals and street graffiti that elevate the artforms. He is the lead photographer for the ongoing mural project WALL\THERAPY and a staff photographer for Roc Paint Division, which offers employment and training to young developing artists.

2021: Herb Smith
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra Trumpet Player and Founder of Herb’s City Trumpets

Smith, a native of Cincinnati, came to Rochester in 1987 to attend the Eastman School of Music, where he established himself as an accomplished classical musician and soloist and a jazz performer. Upon earning his bachelor’s degree, he landed a trumpet position with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and planted roots here.

Through his Herb’s City Trumpets, Smith mentors young people on playing music as a means of self-expression, developing social skills, and learning responsibility, and discipline.

2020: Missy Pfohl Smith
Founder and Artistic Director of the Contemporary Repertory Company BIODANCE

Smith, a dancer, choreographer, and performer who directs the Program of Dance and Movement and the Institute for the Performing Arts at the University of Rochester, has established herself globally as an enthusiastic artistic collaborator.

Her site-specific and multi-disciplinary work, imbued with socially-conscious choreography, has been performed around the world, most recently in Finland, Germany, Greece, and Scotland. Smith serves on the board of the Rochester Fringe Festival, a festival for which she has also created critically-acclaimed shows.

2019: Olivia Kim
Sculptor of the Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Commemoration

Kim was the sculptor behind 13 statues of Frederick Douglass that were placed around Rochester in 2018 to celebrate the bicentennial of the firth of the famed abolitionist and orator who made the city his home.

Her creations were near replicas of a statue of Douglass by Stanley Edwards erected in 1899 that stands in Highland Park and contributed to the subsequent national conversation about the subjects of historical monuments.