The Contemporary Austin Establishes the Suzanne Deal Booth Curatorial Fund
The Contemporary Austin is honored to announce the establishment of the Suzanne Deal Booth Curatorial Fund, made possible by a generous $500,000 gift from arts advocate, philanthropist, and collector Suzanne Deal Booth. This fund marks the next chapter in Deal Booth’s longstanding commitment to The Contemporary’s Curatorial Program, representing a natural and meaningful evolution of her support following the planned culmination of the decade spanning Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize.
The Suzanne Deal Booth Curatorial Fund will directly support The Contemporary’s groundbreaking exhibitions and artist projects. At a particularly important moment in time, the Fund strengthens the institution’s ability to bring ambitious, complex, and rigorous projects to Austin, contributing to the city’s growing reputation as one of the country’s most dynamic and rapidly evolving centers for contemporary art. The Fund also supports The Contemporary Austin’s existing commitment to working across sites through collaboration between the Curatorial, Programming, and Education teams. This ensures that projects aren’t simply artistically excellent, but that they are also thoughtfully engaging audiences through both adult and family-friendly programming, emphasizing accessibility and impact.
The creation of the Suzanne Deal Booth Curatorial Fund serves as a bridge between the former prize and future projects through a direct investment in the broader curatorial program, demonstrating Suzanne’s confidence in The Contemporary’s team, leadership, and institution as a whole. Thanks to the Fund, every exhibition presented can now be realized with the same level of ambition and excellence that defined the prize.
“Over the past decade, the Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize has championed visionary artists at pivotal moments in their careers, offering generous financial support and national recognition that can truly accelerate their trajectories. What distinguishes the Prize is its deep curatorial rigor and the spirit of collaboration at its core—an approach that nurtures ambitious ideas and presents them with care and conviction. I have been continually inspired by the caliber of artists and the thoughtful exhibitions that have emerged through this partnership,” said Suzanne Deal Booth. “As we mark ten years, I am proud to deepen my commitment to artists and to The Contemporary Austin through the Suzanne Deal Booth Curatorial Fund, ensuring that the intellectual and creative vitality of the museum continues to flourish. This investment reflects my enduring confidence in the organization’s leadership, the artists, and its lasting impact on the cultural landscape.”
“Suzanne Deal Booth’s generosity reflects a profound belief in the power of artists and the essential role museums play in their cities,” said sharon maidenberg, Ernest and Sarah Butler Executive Director and CEO of The Contemporary Austin. “The Suzanne Deal Booth Curatorial Fund represents not only an investment in exhibitions, but in people: in the artists who challenge and inspire us, the curators who shape bold ideas, and the audiences who engage with them. We are deeply grateful for Suzanne’s vision and enduring commitment, which will sustain ambitious, artist-centered projects in Austin and beyond at a time when we need it most.”
THE SUZANNE DEAL BOOTH / FLAG ART FOUNDATION ART PRIZE
First established in 2016 with a plan to run for ten years, the Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize is a biennial award honoring an artist selected by a rotating, independent advisory committee of leading curators and art historians. Since expanding in 2018 to include The FLAG Art Foundation, the prize now comprises a $200,000 award, a solo exhibition premiering at The Contemporary Austin and traveling to The FLAG Art Foundation in New York, an accompanying publication, and public programming. The prize honors artists of exceptional achievement with established exhibition records, those whom the committee believes merit wider recognition, and for whom the award can serve as a transformative opportunity. Past recipients include Rodney McMillian (2018), Nicole Eisenman (2020), Tarek Atoui (2022), and Lubaina Himid (2024).
The 2026 recipient of the Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize is Sable Elyse Smith, whose solo exhibition Clockwork will be on view from March 6 through August 2, 2026. Clockwork marks Smith’s most robust institutional exhibition to date and her first solo show in Texas. Following its debut in Austin, the exhibition will travel to The FLAG Art Foundation in New York on view from September 24, 2025 to February 13, 2026. The exhibition will be co-curated by Alex Klein, Deborah Dupré Head Curator & Director of Curatorial Affairs, and Julie Le, Assistant Curator, The Contemporary Austin, and the presentation at The FLAG Art Foundation, New York will be curated by Jonathan Rider, Director. Alongside the exhibition, Smith’s first institutional monograph illustrating the themes in her work will be co-published by Dancing Foxes Press in early 2027.
SUZANNE DEAL BOOTH
Suzanne Deal Booth is an arts advocate, philanthropist, and collector dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage and the advancement of contemporary art. A former member of The Contemporary Austin’s Board of Trustees, her patronage spans conservation initiatives, artist support, and major cultural projects in the United States and internationally.
In 1998, she founded Friends of Heritage Preservation (FOHP), a collaborative philanthropic initiative addressing critical preservation and conservation needs worldwide. She and her family also established the Booth Family Rome Prize Fellowship for Historic Preservation and Conservation at the American Academy in Rome. Her longstanding support of the arts includes realizing James Turrell’s Twilight Epiphany Skyspace at Rice University in Houston, completed in 2012 and named the Suzanne Deal Booth Centennial Skyspace.
In 2016, Deal Booth created the Suzanne Deal Booth Art Prize, administered by The Contemporary Austin, a biennial unrestricted award of $100,000 given to an artist, including a solo exhibition at The Contemporary Austin accompanied by a scholarly publication. The prize was expanded to $200,000 and renamed through a partnership with The FLAG Art Foundation in 2018, and has since been awarded to Rodney McMillian (2018), Nicole Eisenman (2020), Tarek Atoui (2022), Lubaina Himid (2024), whose work Booth purchased at the museum’s 2025 Art Dinner Auction, and Sable Elyse Smith (2026). Alongside her arts patronage, she oversees her family’s historic Bella Oaks vineyard in Rutherford, California, where she frequently brings together art, wine, and cultural programming through curated events.
Images
1) (From left) Alex Klein, Suzanne Deal Booth, Sable Elyse Smith, and sharon maidenberg. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photograph by Nina Fernandez/BFA.com.
2) Rodney McMillian, The White House Painting, 2018. Vinyl and thread. 13 feet x 42 feet 4 inches. Commissioned by The Contemporary Austin, with funds provided by the Suzanne Deal Booth Art Prize. Installation view, Rodney McMillian: Against a Civic Death, The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center on Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas, 2018. Artwork © Rodney McMillian. Courtesy the artist, Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, and Maccarone, New York. Photograph by Brian Fitzsimmons.
3) Nicole Eisenman, Procession, 2019–2020. Installation view, Nicole Eisenman: Sturm und Drang, The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center on Congress Avenue, 2020. Artwork © Nicole Eisenman. Courtesy the artist; Vielmetter Los Angeles; and Anton Kern Gallery, New York. Photograph by Colin Doyle.
4) Tarek Atoui: The Whisperers Lab (featuring Henna Chou), The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center on Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas, 2022. Artwork © Tarek Atoui. Image courtesy The Contemporary Austin. Photograph by Leon Alesi.
5) Installation view, Lubaina Himid: Make Do and Mend, The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center on Congress Avenue, 2024. Artwork © Lubaina Himid. Photograph by Alex Boeschenstein.
6-9) Installation view, Sable Elyse Smith: Clockwork, The Contemporary Austin – Jones Center on Congress Avenue, Texas, 2026. Artwork © Sable Elyse Smith. Photograph by Alex Boeschenstein.