“Just Above Midtown” Wins the 2024 Brendan Gill Prize

The Brendan Gill Jury, comprised of seven civic-minded professionals representing the arts and design community, selects the awardee through nominations submitted to MAS.

Lax and Goode Bryant were selected to receive this honor by the Municipal Art Society’s distinguished Brendan Gill Prize jury, which consisted of:

• John Haworth, (Brendan Gill Prize Jury Chair), Senior Executive Emeritus, National Museum of the American Indian/NY, Smithsonian Institution
• Randall Bourscheidt, Director, Archive of New York City Cultural Policy
• Roz Chast, Cartoonist, The New Yorker
• Patricia Cruz, Artistic Director and CEO, Harlem Stage
• Gail Gregg, Artist and Journalist
• Cassim Shepard, Urbanist, Filmmaker, and Author
• Laurie Beckelman, Not-for-profit Consultant

2024 Guest Jury Members

• Gonzalo Casals, Senior Research and Policy Fellow, Arts and Culture at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
• Dario Calmese, Founder/CEO, The Institute of Black Imagination
• Michael Unthank, Independent Arts Consultant

About Just Above Midtown

Just Above Midtown—or JAM—was an art gallery and self-described laboratory led by Linda Goode Bryant that foregrounded African American artists and artists of color. Open from 1974 until 1986, it was a place where Black art flourished and debate was cultivated. The gallery offered early opportunities for artists now recognized as pivotal figures in late-20th-century art, including David Hammons, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O’Grady, and Howardena Pindell. Nengudi has described JAM’s energy as “vibrating,” a space where artists “were given carte blanche, and there were no restrictions.” This exhibition presented artists and artworks previously shown at JAM in a wide range of mediums, and archival material and artist interventions contextualize the experimental ethos that defined the gallery.

Animated by Goode Bryant’s belief in trying to “connect us to our innate ability to use what we have to create what we need,” the gallery took what was an expansive view at the time, embracing artists working with abstraction and inexpensive materials, video and performance, as well as self-taught and West Coast artists. It organized exhibitions that explored the idea of artistic and racial diversity, encouraged collaborations between artists, and, with a steady drumbeat, offered a platform for consistent critiques of the commercialization of art. As part of their mission to build relationships with the city’s art audiences, Goode Bryant and her collaborators incorporated talks and workshops into the gallery’s programming, including The Business of Being an Artist—aimed at artists’ professional development—and Brunch with JAM, a $5 lunch series featuring lectures by artists and museum curators. This exhibition likewise included performances, screenings, and public programs, as well as a range of collaborations.

The exhibition also continued across New York City with Inside/Out, a series of artist commissions presented by Project EATS—Goode Bryant’s living installation that transforms vacant lots and rooftops into neighborhood-based farms. In the spirit of JAM, the series brings art from inside museums and galleries out into neighborhoods around the city. Learn more and find all Inside/Out locations by visiting Project EATS.

About the Brendan Gill Prize

The Brendan Gill Prize is given each year to honor the creator of a specific work—a book, essay, musical composition, play, painting, sculpture, architectural design, film, or choreographic piece—that best captures the spirit and energy of New York City. Past recipients include Ang Lee, Louis Malle, Sufjan Stevens, Kara Walker, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and John Wilson.

The prize was established in 1987 in honor of renowned New Yorker theater and architecture critic, social historian and former MAS President Brendan Gill by friend and fellow MAS trustee Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis along with board members Helen Tucker and Margot Wellington.

About MAS

The Municipal Art Society of New York (MAS) lifts up the voices of the people in the debates that shape New York’s built environment and leads the way toward a more livable city from sidewalk to skyline. MAS envisions a future in which all New Yorkers share in the richness of city life—where growth is balanced, character endures, and a resilient future is secured.