Icon (Close Menu)

Logout

Blackwell Elected to American Academy of Arts and Letters

2 min read

Fayetteville architect Marlon Blackwell has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a society that began in 1898 to honor the nation’s leading architects, composers and writers.

The academy has 300 members who are elected for life, and membership is considered the highest artistic merit in the country. Blackwell and other newly elected members will be inducted May 19.

“You are welcomed into a fellowship of esteemed American artists who are making a real impact, and your work is acknowledged by these folks who are operating at the highest level of excellence in the discipline,” Blackwell said. “It’s amazing, and it’s amazing to be part of this accomplished group – I’m very humbled.”

Blackwell will become one of just 21 architects in the academy and the only one who is not based on the East or West Coast. He received the 2020 Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects and received an Arts and Letters Award from the academy in 2012.

“It’s yet another big win for the middle,” Blackwell said. “I just think that it’s another example and recognition of the good things that are happening in the middle. And to know that there may be an opportunity to recognize others from our own neck of the woods. It allows me to be an advocate and a voice for the middle amongst these giants of the discipline.”

Blackwell is the founder of Marlon Blackwell Architects in Fayetteville and is a distinguished professor at the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture.

“Election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters signifies to the cultural community of the United States what we have known for many years already at the Fay Jones School and at the university — that Marlon Blackwell is an exemplary architect-educator,” said Peter MacKeith, dean of the architecture school. “Further, Marlon’s election, based upon his life and work achieved in Arkansas and in this region, recognizes that American culture is most authentically and vibrantly cultivated in its heartland. Membership in the academy is a well-deserved spotlight on an American original.”

Send this to a friend