Scully Receives Lifetime Achievement Honor From National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has bestowed upon Vincent J. Scully its Crownshield Award for lifetime achievement – the organization’s highest honor.
Scully, Sterling Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at Yale University and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Miami, has been called the most important interpreter of art and architecture of our time, the National Trust stated in a news release. For 61 years, he has inspired generations of students with his unique style of “lecture performance” and his original and penetrating analysis of art, architecture, landscape, urbanism, cultural heritage and the human spirit. The author of 20 books, Scully has taught, trained and mentored many of the nation’s foremost art historians, artists, architects, preservationists and critics, the group says.
A Trustee Emeritus of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Scully has been on the front lines of the preservation movement, condemning sprawl as the enemy of the historic American landscape. Many important battles in Scully’s native New Haven, including the fight to save New Haven’s Public Library and City Hall, were won because of his tireless effort and commitment.
Scully is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts, the United States’ highest honor for artists and arts patrons, and dozens of other accolades. In 1999, the National Building Museum endowed the Vincent Scully Prize to recognize exemplary practice, scholarship, or criticism in architecture, historic preservation, and urban design.
“There is no candidate more worthy of the National Trust’s highest honor for lifetime achievement than Professor Vincent Scully,” said Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “He is a hero of mine, as he is to so many others who appreciate great design and great architecture. Through his life’s work, Vincent Scully has helped preserve the heritage of our nation.”
To learn more about the Crownshield Award and the National Trust, visit www.preservationnation.org.
