Franklin Sirmans accepts the 2007 recipient of the David C. Driskell Prize. Named after the renowned African American artist and art scholar, the Driskell Prize recognizes a scholar or artist in the beginning or middle of his or her career whose work makes an original and important contribution to the field of African American art or art history.
Franklin Sirmans is an independent curator, writer, editor and lecturer based in New York City. A former U.S. Editor of *Flash Art* and Editor-in-Chief of *Art Asia Pacific* magazines, Sirmans has written for several journals and newspapers on art and culture, including *The New York Times*, *Newsweek International*, *Art in America*, *ArtNews*, *Grand Street* and *Essence Magazine*. He is cocurator of *Basquiat* (2005-2006: Brooklyn Museum, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston). He was cocurator of *Make It Now: New Sculpture in New York at Sculpture Center*; *One Planet Under A Groove: Contemporary Art and Hip Hop* (2001-2003: Bronx Museum of Art, Spelman College Art Gallery, Atlanta, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and Villa Stuck, Munich, Germany); and *Ralph Bunche: Diplomat for Peace and Justice at the Queens Museum of Art* (2004). Sirmans has edited numerous catalogues on contemporary art including *Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain*, *Jean-Michel Basquiat*, *Freestyle and Black Belt at The Studio Museum in Harlem*, and contributed to Gary Simmons at the MCA, Chicago and *Double Consciousness: Black Conceptual Art Since 1970*. Born in New York City (Queens), Sirmans was raised in Harlem, Albany and New Rochelle, New York. He attended Manhattan Country School, Albany Academy and New Rochelle High School before receiving a B.A. in Art History and English from Wesleyan University (1991).