Ann Hamilton wins Heinz Award

Ann Hamilton -- an artist known for delicately evocative installations created from masses of unconventional materials, who represented the U.S. at the 1999 Venice Biennale -- has won this year’s Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities. The professor of art at Ohio State University in Columbus with an international resume was cited as “a provocative visual artist whose installations around the world have woven a broad palette of media into engaging sensory environments.”

Hamilton, 52, will receive her $250,000 award Oct. 21 at a private ceremony in Pittsburgh along with awardees in four other categories: environment; human condition; public policy; and technology, the economy and employment. The Heinz Awards are presented annually by the Heinz Family Foundation, chaired by Teresa Heinz Kerry, in memory of her late husband, Sen. John Heinz of Pennsylvania.

-- Suzanne Muchnic