2025 Award Winners, Herb Alpert Award in the Arts
Courtesy of the Herb Alpert Foundation
At a time when funding for the arts and to artists is imperiled, it becomes even more critical to shine a light on the continuing support by individual philanthropists such as Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, whose Herb Alpert Foundation has just announced the winners of the 2025 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (HAAIA).
“This year, for reasons you can imagine,” Said Irene Borger, HAAIA Director, we are that much more grateful to the Herb Alpert Awardees who boldly challenge received notions, see beneath the surface, refuse silence and obscuration, provoke, astonish, and wake us up.”
Two winners in each of five disciplines receive an unrestricted $75,000 award. This is the 31st year of the award, which over time has gone to 184 innovative and ground-breaking mid-career artists, many of whom have gone on to winning MacArthur, Pulitzers and other prizes. Each winner is chosen by a panel of three professionals in their discipline, many of whom are prior HAAIA winners.
The winners this year in the Dance category were Paloma McGregor and David Thomson. The panelists were Yanira Castro, Joanna Haigood, and Gideon Lester.
In Film/Video the awards went to Nazli Dincel and Ja’Tovia Gary. The panelists were Christopher Harris, Alexandra Juhasz, and Bani Khoshnoudi.
This year’s Music HAAIA winners are Mikel Patrick Avery and Yvette Janine Jackson; and the panelists were Eve Beglarian, Tomeka Reid and David Virelless.
For Theater, the winners are Becca Blackwell and Hansol Jung, and the panelists were Carra Martinez, Tom Sellar and Seema Sueko-Low.
And in Visual Arts, this year’s HAAIA winners are Azza El Siddique and Sondra Perry; and the panelists were Katherine C. M. Adams, Tim Griffin, and Paul Ha.
Herb Alpert on tour
Photo by Dewey Nicks, Courtesy of Herb Alpert
Herb Alpert, who recently turned 90, is currently on tour with a revived Tijuana Brass. He has supported arts education at schools and universities, including at the Harlem School for the Arts, UCLA and Los Angeles Community College. He understands how much artists need to be supported for the benefit of all society.
“I’ve always loved the artists that travel the road less traveled,” Herb Alpert said, “those are the artists that touch me.”
“Herb and Lani Alpert have continued their commitment over three decades to honor and contribute to supremely dedicated, talented art makers and performing artists,” Rona Sebastian, President of the Herb Alpert Foundation, said. “The Herb Alpert Foundation understands that trusting artists with an unrestricted prize, as they go further and deeper into their art, is critical at this moment when artistic freedom and exploration are – once again – under assault.”