WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts, announced today that it is presenting the 2011 Public Art Network (PAN) Award to Mary Beebe, founding director of the Stuart Collection at the University of California, San Diego. The Public Art Network Award honors innovative contributions to, and exemplary commitment and leadership in, public art. Ms. Beebe will receive her award on June 15 at the Americans for the Arts Public Art Preconference in San Diego.

“Ms. Beebe exemplifies the power artists and the arts have to transform places,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “Her work in San Diego and across the country has advanced the field of public art.”

Mary Beebe has been the Director of the Stuart Collection, an ongoing program commissioning outdoor sculpture for the 1200-acre campus at the University of California, San Diego since its inception in l981. Under her direction, the collection has featured works by such notable artists as John Baldessari, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jackie Ferrara, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Richard Fleischner, Jenny Holzer, Robert Irwin, Barbara Kruger, Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik, Kiki Smith and William Wegman. The collection has received considerable national and international recognition. Locally it has received two awards from the San Diego Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, one for the collection as a whole in 1989 and another for Alexis Smith's Snake Path in 1992. In addition, it received a National Honors Award from the American Institute of Architects in May 1994. 

Prior to moving to San Diego, Mary Beebe was Director for nine years of the Portland Center for the Visual Arts in Portland, Oregon where she oversaw an important program of exhibitions, installations, performance art, music, dance and other major forms of artistic expressions. She currently serves on numerous boards and committees, including the Board of Directors of Art Matters, Inc., New York.

“The Stuart Collection is adventurous, original, playful yet serious, thought-provoking and timeless, “said Barbara Goldstein, Public Art Network council chair and director of the San Jose Public Art Program. “Not only has Beebe sustained the Collection’s high quality throughout its 28 year history, but she has also made it the model for other universities and corporate campuses throughout the United States. It never ceases to astound.”

The Public Art Network, a program of Americans for the Arts, is designed to provide services to the diverse field of public art and to develop strategies and tools to improve communities through public art. PAN’s membership includes public art professionals, visual artists, design professionals and communities and organizations planning public art projects and programs.

Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. With offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City, it has a record of more than 50 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Additional information is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org.