ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.-The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College (CCS Bard) will present its 11th annual Award for Curatorial Excellence to Catherine David, independent curator, former artistic director of documenta X, and former director of Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam. David has been a powerful advocate for a global perspective with exhibitions that are provocative, challenging, and often intellectually demanding. She was selected by a panel of leading critics, curators, art experts, and alumni/ae on behalf of CCS Bard, who praised her most recent collaborations between institutions in the Arab world and the art world as particularly important for our time.

Each year the Center for Curatorial Studies celebrates the individual achievements of a leading curator or curators whose lasting contributions have shaped the way we conceive of exhibitionmaking today. Past recipients of the award include Harald Szeemann (1998), Marcia Tucker (1999), Kasper König (2000), Paul Schimmel (2001), Suzanne Ghez (2002), Kynaston McShine (2003), Walter Hopps (2004), Kathy Halbreich and Mari Carmen Ramírez (2005), Lynne Cooke and Vasif Kortun (2006), and Alanna Heiss (2007). This award reflects the Center's commitment to recognizing individuals who have demonstrated new thinking, bold vision, and dedicated service to the field of exhibition practice. The formal presentation of the 2008 award by renowned photographer Jeff Wall will be made at a gala dinner on April 16 at Gotham Hall (1356 Broadway at 36th Street) in New York City.

Catherine David, former artistic director of documenta x and former director of Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art in Rotterdam, is one of the most groundbreaking curators working in Europe today. She began her career as a curator at the National Museum of Modern Art at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris in the 1980s. Through her work with documenta x and Witte de With, she has endeavored to create a conversation with the audience through the ideas, creativity, and processes of artists. She presents exhibitions with a global perspective, working with an emerging community of artists from Latin America and the Middle East. Her highly acclaimed and controversial projects, Contemporary Arab Representations, encouraged an invaluable exchange between the Arab world and the art world and perhaps helped to change some perspectives within both communities through seminars, publications, and performances. David has also taught at Humboldt University in Berlin.