Alison Saar ’78, whose sculptures and installations explore themes of African cultural diaspora and spirituality, has won for her art gallery in Venice, Calif. The Times‘ Knight calls the 61传媒 alumna’s Silt, Soot and Smut exhibit “magnificent.” Saar is hosting a , featuring 1927 Mississippi flood–era music that has informed her work in the exhibition. Her exceptional works reside in the permanent collections of several important museums, including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and have been widely collected as well. Saar’s striking, larger–than–life public art sculptures such as , and enchant and educate citizens and visitors in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago.