Lawrence J. Wheeler, director of the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA), will be presented with the inaugural Mary D.B.T. Semans Award for Distinguished Service to the Arts.
The award, created by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in celebration of its fifth anniversary this fall, will be presented Nov. 13 at the museum's annual benefit gala.
"We are thrilled to name a special award for Mary Semans, who with her late husband, Dr. James H. Semans, transformed the arts at Duke, in Durham and across the state. We believe that the Mary D.B.T. Semans Award truly represents what a passion for the arts and arts advocacy can achieve," said Kimerly Rorschach, the James H. and Mary D.B.T. Semans Director of the Nasher Museum.
"Larry Wheeler was our natural choice as the first recipient of this award," Rorschach added. "His leadership of the NCMA, culminating in a beautiful new building and 164-acre park, has made that museum one of the region's most popular and dynamic centers for the visual and performing arts."
Mary D.B.T. Semans, a 1939 graduate of Duke's Woman's College, has been a longtime supporter of the Nasher Museum. The museum's great hall bears her name, and the museum directorship and the annual Semans Lecture are named for both Semans and her late husband. During the 1960s and '70s, while serving on the Duke Board of Trustees, Semans advocated for an art museum on campus and worked closely with the late Raymond D. Nasher, a 1943 graduate of Duke, to establish the Nasher Museum. She is a member of the Nasher Museum's national board of advisors.
Wheeler has been director of the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh since October 1994. During his tenure, blockbuster exhibitions, including "Rodin: Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation" (2000) and "Monet in Normandy"(2006), have attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors to the NCMA. Under Wheeler's leadership, the NCMA expanded in April with a new 127,000-square-foot building to house the permanent collection and numerous new acquisitions, including the gift of 29 Rodin sculptures and commissioned works by El Anatsui, Patrick Dougherty and Ursula von Rydingsvard.
In December 2000, Wheeler was named Tar Heel of the Year by The (Raleigh) News and Observer, which called him "the godfather of the Triangle's cultural boom" and cited his skill at melding "arts, politics and commerce into a powerful new cultural force." His recent awards include the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the Republic of France, the Medal of Arts from the city of Raleigh, the Legacy Leadership Award from The Triangle Business Journal, the Design Guild Award from the North Carolina State University College of Design and the Thad Eure Memorial Award from the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau.
In 2007, Wheeler accepted the Attraction of the Year Award from the North Carolina Travel Industry Association in recognition of the 214,000 visitors who attended the 2006-07 "Monet" exhibition.
- - - The Nasher Museum, at 2001 Campus Drive at Anderson Street on the Duke campus, is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday; and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays.Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and members of the Duke Alumni Association, $3 for non-Duke students with identification and free for children 15 and younger. Admission is free to all on Thursday nights, made possible by SunTrust Bank and The Independent Weekly. Admission is free to Duke students, faculty and staff with Duke Cards. Admission is also free to Nasher Museum members.
Additional information is available at www.nasher.duke.edu.