L.A. Weekly arts editor Shana Nys Dambrot was awarded the illustrious Rabkin Prize of $50,000 on Friday, July 15.

The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation presents the annual award to the “essential visual art journalists working in your part of the country,” with eight winners this year.

The highly-decorated Nys Dambrot has lent her voice to L.A. Weekly since 2011, blessing Angelenos with her art critiques and features before spearheading the Weekly’s arts section as an editor in 2018.

“This is an incredible honor; it’s honestly so profound to feel seen by the community of arts writers, here in LA and around the country,” Nys Dambrot said. “This year’s cohort of Rabkin Prize-winners represents such a talented group, it’s a pleasure to be in their company! And I’m so grateful to my amazing co-workers and our readers. Onward and upwards with the arts!”

The journalists contending for the Rabkin Prize can only be entered by nominators from an anonymous group of 16, all of whom work in the arts across the U.S.

From there, a panel of judges vet the entrants, dive into their submitted work and choose the absolute top art journalists in the country to receive the generous award of $50,000 each.

The Rabkin Prize has been given out since 2017, and the foundation has awarded a total of $2,775,000 to all its winners in that span.

The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation was founded to preserve Leo’s art, which can be traced back 60 years through New York City exhibits, according to the foundation.

The foundation’s grant celebrates and rewards writers who exhibited Rabkin’s vision for the visual arts.

This would not be Nys Dambrot’s first time receiving high honors, earning multiple awards at the annual Southern California Journalism Awards, highlighted by a first place finish for best “Art/Architecture/Design Criticism” in 2021.

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