NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 27, 2025 – The American Academy of Arts and Letters is pleased to announce the twenty-one new members who will be elected into the Departments of Architecture, Art, Literature, and Music in 2025, along with 1 new American Honorary member and 2 new Foreign Honorary members.
In Architecture: Ricardo Scofidio
In Art: Donna Dennis, Coco Fusco, Robert Grosvenor, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds, Sheila Hicks, Rashid Johnson, An-My Lê, Charline von Heyl, Fred Wilson
In Literature: Elizabeth Alexander, Adam Gopnik, Gish Jen, Chang-rae Lee, Daniel Mendelsohn, Claire Messud, Darryl Pinckney, Jesmyn Ward
In Music: Derek Bermel, Gabriela Lena Frank, Lin-Manuel Miranda
American Honorary Membership: Angela Davis
Foreign Honorary Membership: Francis Alÿs, Marina Tabassum
The 300 members of Arts and Letters are divided into Departments of Architecture, Art, Literature, and Music, and are elected in recognition of notable achievement in their fields. Members are elected for life, pay no dues, and nominate and elect new members as vacancies occur. Members oversee every aspect of the institution’s governance by serving on its Board of Directors and award selection committees. By honoring their peers through election to membership and supporting nonmember artists through awards, exhibitions, art purchases, and commissions, the members of Arts and Letters create a community of mutual support and recognition for artists across disciplines.
In addition, Arts and Letters includes 75 Foreign Honorary members—architects, artists, composers, and writers from outside the United States—and 20 American Honorary members whose work falls outside the membership’s traditional departments.
The 21 new members and 3 honorary members will be inducted into Arts and Letters during its annual Ceremonial in May. During the ceremony, Caryl Phillips will deliver the keynote Blashfield Address. Phillips, an Arts and Letters member in Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, plays, and screenplays. He is currently Professor of English at Yale University and his newest novel, Another Man in the Street, was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux last month.