Meek wins 2023 Moss/Chumley

By Carrie Sanger

The Meadows Museum, SMU, announces that Vicki Meek (pictured) has won the 2023 Moss/Chumley North Texas Artist Award. The award is given annually to an outstanding North Texas artist who has exhibited professionally for at least 10 years and has established a proven track record as a community advocate for the visual arts. The award brings a $3,000 cash prize.

Meek is a Dallas-based multi-media artist/curator whose work seeks to reclaim a lost memory and cultural context by exploring her African heritage and gaining insight into how her ancestors fostered a spiritual and collaborative community and society. Utilizing a mix of contemporary images and traditional West African iconography, Meek has “developed a visual language that affirms the ancestral African in [her] DNA while exploring the American manifestation of it in real-time.” 

Vicki Meek has curated more than 125 exhibitions within Texas. She has mentored numerous local artists and served on the advisory boards of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing & Visual Arts and Teatro Dallas. She served on the board of directors for Dallas Video Association and D-Art Visual Art Center, where she was also the former executive director. Meek writes cultural criticism for Dallas Weekly with her blog “Art & Racenotes” and wrote a monthly column, “ARTiculate,” for TheaterJones, an online performing arts magazine. Vicki Meek served at the South Dallas Cultural Center for 20 years before retiring as manager in 2016.

“Jim Chumley and Frank Moss were stalwart supporters of Texas artists and did all they could to promote those artists within and beyond Texas,” said Meek. “I like to think my work in arts administration here in Texas did the same, so I’m honored to be recognized with the Moss/Chumley Award because our missions certainly aligned. Having my art, art practice, and community service all acknowledged in one award, is especially rewarding.”

Nancy Cohen Israel, arts writer and educator for the Meadows Museum and jury member, stated, “Vicki Meek’s decades-long commitment to the Dallas art world embodies the spirit of the Moss/Chumley Award. Between her own thought-provoking artistic practices as well as her dedicated work as a teacher, activist, and non-profit leader, Vicki’s depth of experience honors the legacy of the award while bringing an illuminating and enriching perspective to the Meadows Museum.”