30th Annual Alain Locke Awards

The Friends of African and African American Art present the 30th Annual Alain Locke Awards on Saturday, February 25th at 5:30 p.m. in Kresge Reception. The award ceremony will honor artists Ming Smith and Henry Heading.   

The Alain Locke International Award will be presented this year to Detroit-born photographer Ming Smith, known for her black and white street photography depicting various aspects of humanity.  Smith was the first woman to become a member of the Kamoinge Workshop, founded in 1963, a collective of Black photographers documenting Black life in New York, which is still active today. By the late 1970s, she had become the first African American female photographer whose work was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City.  In 2023, Smith was selected as one of the recipients of The International Center of Photography’s Infinity Awards honoring outstanding achievements in photography. Currently, her art is being exhibited at MOMA. Valerie Mercer, curator and department head of African American Art at the DIA, will lead Smith in a conversation about her photography and career.    

The local Alain Locke Recognition Award will be presented to Detroit artist Henry Heading. A longtime member of the Detroit Fine Arts Breakfast Club, Heading’s realistic paintings feature African American celebrities and everyday people of interest to him.