2026 MassArt Common Good Awards Celebrate Artists, Educators, and Creative Leaders Advancing the Public Good
MassArt recognizes six honorees - renowned artists and passionate advocates - whose creative work enriches communities across Massachusetts and beyond
BOSTON – Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) President Mary K. Grant, PhD, announced today the recipients of the 2026 MassArt Common Good Awards, recognizing artists, educators, cultural leaders, and innovators whose work demonstrates the power of creativity to strengthen communities and create meaningful change across the Commonwealth and beyond.
Now in its fourth year, the MassArt Common Good Awards shine a light on individuals and organizations who put art and design to work in service of others—expanding access to creative opportunities, enriching public life, championing diverse voices, and imagining new possibilities for their communities.
“The annual MassArt Common Good Awards remind us that creativity is not only a means of expression, but a powerful force for connection, understanding, and positive change,” says President Mary K. Grant. “Through their art, teaching, advocacy, and leadership, this year’s honorees have used their creative gifts to open doors, bring people together, and strengthen the communities around them, serving the common good in ways that inspire us all.”
The 2026 honorees represent a range of creative practices and civic commitments. Together, they demonstrate how art and design shapes more vibrant, inclusive, and connected communities through education and mentorship, public art and cultural programming, advocacy, storytelling, or innovative approaches to civic life.
The honorees will be celebrated at a joyful ceremony on Saturday, December 5, 2026 at 12pm in MassArt’s Design and Media Center, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston. The event is free and open to the public, with advance registration recommended. Following the ceremony, honorees, guests, and attendees alike are all invited to stay for a celebratory light lunch.
Each honoree will receive a custom-made work of art by sculptural glass artist MassArt alumnus Adam Waimon BFA ‘06 Glass.
For more information about the MassArt Common Good Awards, visit massart.edu/massart-common-good-awards.
2026 Common Good Awards Honorees
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2026 Honorees, clockwise from top left: David Greenberger, Silvina Ibanez,
Fine Arts Work Center, Josh Simpson, Candelaria Silva-Collins, and Ekua Holmes. |
DAVID GREENBERGER
Distinguished Alumni AwardDavid Greenberger BFA ‘78 Painting, is an artist, writer, musician, and storyteller whose multidisciplinary work explores memory, aging, identity, and the unexpected poetry of everyday life. Born in Chicago and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania, he moved to Boston in 1974 to attend MassArt. Beginning in 1979, he created The Duplex Planet, a publication inspired by conversations with residents of nursing homes. What began as a periodical evolved into an expansive body of audio recordings, performances, drawings, books, and collaborations with musicians, creating a deeply human portrait of aging that challenges conventional ideas about memory and identity. His work approaches aging not as a diminished state, but as a vital and continually evolving experience. A musician as well as an artist, Greenberger was a longtime member of the band Men & Volts and has collaborated with musicians and performers throughout his career. His work has been adapted into comic books, short films, and plays, and he has been the subject of four documentaries, including Beyond the Duplex Planet which had its world premiere at SXSW in March 2026. His essays and performances have been featured on National Public Radio, and he has served as a keynote speaker at universities, museums, and conferences focused on aging. He lives and works in upstate New York.
SILVINA IBANEZ
Frances Euphemia Thompson Award for Excellence in Teaching
Silvina Ibanez is a professional visual artist, Registered Expressive Arts Therapist (REAT), licensed mental health counselor, art educator, and community arts advocate dedicated to expanding access to the arts as a tool for healing, empowerment and social change. She is also a teacher at the William Carter School, a Boston Public School providing specialized education for students with significant cognitive disabilities and complex medical needs. Her work centers on the power of creativity to foster connection, healing, and change, and with more than 25 years of experience in the arts, she has worked with individuals, groups, and communities in the United States and abroad. She holds a BFA from the Universidad Nacional de las Artes in Argentina, an MFA from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and a Master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling with a specialization in expressive arts therapy from Lesley University. As a teaching artist and educator, Ibanez facilitates art classes and workshops for people of all ages and abilities, and as an expressive arts therapist, she specializes in working with individuals living with neurocognitive and neurodegenerative disorders, as well as people with severe or intensive disabilities. Grounded in a humanistic, compassionate, person-centered approach, her practice uses the arts to encourage self-expression, creativity, communication, and connection, making the arts accessible and meaningful for diverse communities.
FINE ARTS WORK CENTER
Common Good Award
The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown has nurtured artists, writers, and the broader Outer Cape Cod community for more than five decades, providing time, space, and creative connection since its founding in 1968. Best known for its acclaimed Fellowship Program, FAWC awards seven-month residencies each year to 20 emerging writers and visual artists. More than 1,000 Fellows have participated in the program, going on to receive Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, the Nobel Prize in Literature, and MacArthur Fellowships, and to present their work at leading institutions including the Venice Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art, MASS MoCA, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Today, the Work Center extends its mission through year-round programs that connect artists and audiences across generations and disciplines. Offerings include the open-enrollment Summer Workshop Program, FAWC Online, writing and visual arts workshops, residencies for mid-career artists, and programs for public school students and seniors. Its robust calendar of exhibitions, performances, readings, and other cultural events welcomes more than 10,000 visitors each year, making the Work Center an enduring creative hub on the Outer Cape and a community arts organization elevating the common good.
EKUA HOLMES
Common Good Award
Ekua Holmes BFA ‘77 Photography is an award-winning visual artist, illustrator, educator, and community advocate whose collage-based practice draws on family histories, childhood memories, faith, hope, and self-determination. A lifelong Roxbury resident and proud member of the neighborhood’s tradition of image-makers, Holmes finds inspiration close to home, transforming cut and torn papers into vibrant, layered reflections on identity, relationships, and lived experience. She has dedicated her career to supporting creative expression and expanding access to the arts. She has led workshops, served as a visiting artist and lecturer, and held residencies at institutions throughout New England, and serves as Associate Director of MassArt’s Center for Art and Community Partnerships, where she oversees sparc! the ArtMobile, bringing art and artmaking out throughout the Boston community. In 2016, she launched the Roxbury Sunflower Project after receiving a Boston Triennial Public Art Accelerator Fellowship, bringing together community members to plant 10,000 sunflower seeds throughout her native Roxbury. Holmes is also an acclaimed illustrator of children’s literature. Her honors include a Caldecott Honor and multiple Coretta Scott King Awards, including recognition for Voice of Freedom, Out of Wonder, and Stuff of Stars. She is the recipient of the MassArt Distinguished Alumni Award and a Brother Thomas Fellowship from The Boston Foundation.
CANDELARIA SILVA-COLLINS (posthumous)
Common Good Award
Candelaria Silva-Collins was a consultant, writer, children’s book author, and community leader whose work helped shape Boston’s cultural landscape and strengthen the connection between arts and community. As founding director of ACT Roxbury, the cultural economic development program of Madison Park Development Corporation, she helped create programs including the Roxbury International Film Festival, Roxbury Open Studios, the Roxbury Literary Annual, Roxbury in Motion, and the Danette Jones Business of Culture Series, providing new opportunities for artists, filmmakers, writers, and cultural entrepreneurs. She also played a pivotal role in the creation of the Roxbury Center for Arts at Hibernian Hall and spearheaded audience development efforts at the Huntington Theatre Company. Candelaria’s last public roles were as grant manager for the Boston Public Library’s Fellowes Athenaeum Trust Fund at the Shaw-Roxbury Branch and Chair of the Board of Designators for the George B. Henderson Foundation. As an author, she wrote three children’s books featuring Stacey Huggins, an imaginative Black girl whose adventures celebrate childhood, family, and joy. Her writing also appeared in publications including The Boston Globe, Ebony Jr., The Horn Book, and School Library Journal. A passionate mentor and advocate, she served on numerous nonprofit boards and received honors including the Roxbury Puddingstone Award and the Arts and Community Leadership Award from the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston. Her legacy reflects a lifelong commitment to arts, community, and the power of creative expression.
Candelaria died of cancer in March 2026. Hers will be the first posthumous MassArt Common Good Award.
JOSH SIMPSON
Common Good Award
Josh Simpson is an internationally acclaimed glass artist whose five-decade career has been marked by extraordinary imagination, technical innovation, and generosity to the creative community. Inspired by Tiffany and Steuben glass in his grandparents’ home, he discovered his calling while at Hamilton College, eventually building his own furnaces and establishing his studio in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. His richly detailed Planets, New Mexico Glass, Tektites, Saturns, and other works have been exhibited internationally and are held in major collections, including the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, Corning Museum of Glass, and Yale University Art Gallery. His work has even traveled into space with his wife, NASA astronaut Cady Coleman. Beyond the studio, Simpson has been a tireless advocate for the creative community of western Massachusetts. He purchased the historic Salmon Falls Building in 1992, helping ensure the continuation of Salmon Falls Gallery, which exhibits and sells the work of scores of regional artists. Throughout his career, Simpson has also devoted considerable time and energy to supporting the broader craft community. He is a longtime supporter of Snow Farm Craft School, helping secure the school’s permanent home in Williamsburg, Massachusetts. He co-founded the Craft Emergency Relief Fund and was its first board president. He has also served as president of the Glass Art Society. He currently serves on the board of the American Craft Council. He has taught at Penland, Haystack, and Corning and has received numerous honors, including honorary doctorates from Hamilton College, Bay Path University, and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.
